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Don't be rich, Live rich

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Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#81

Post by econgeeker »

billpaetzke wrote: post #74
econgeeker wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We kept the insurance we had in the states before. Due to obamacare our previous plan was shut down (as it became illegal to sell lower cost plans like it) and we were put onto a more expensive plan. We're researching our options. But we may end up buying insurance in the USA and then supplementing it with World Nomads coverage. They charge around $50 a month and provide $500k emergency transport back to the US (wher…

This is all good info. Thanks. You should put your email, website, or twitter in the "about" section in your profile. I'm sure people would like to learn with you.

I invested a lot of time on this site in the past, only to have my account unceremoniously hellbanned, without warning or cause. I've no expectation that this won't happen again, so I'm not planning to stick around.

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#82

Post by jen_h »

TA662 wrote: post #79

This is just how I'm hoping to spend most of my 20s. I did freelance for a while, and I came to the conclusion that I don't really enjoy doing client work, so now I'm working on a startup instead. Does anybody have experience doing a startup on the road, as opposed to the more common freelancing/blogging/consulting? My aim is to get my SaaS product(s) to the point of requiring almost zero work. (Everything automated,…

Voxilate/HeyTell was built on the road; inside the US, though, as we've a pretty important server component and we've learned that if we are both offline, bad things happen.

I.e., if we have to fly somewhere, we don't fly together. Phones on multiple networks capable of tethering, a wireless broadband card and a router that'll use it are a must-have (our Cradlepoint's been a champ...the Mifi's cool, but the ability to plug a card or Ethernet or both into the CP rocks).

We've had a blast and we're still going gangbusters after almost two years on the road - so it's totally doable.

My advice would be not to be too disappointed if your zero-work aim is never achieved (maybe you could get away with this if you didn't have users or a server component...hah!); we pretty much work around the clock, but we love it.

We have an old blog post from our first month mobile about reducing burn rates while doing this sort of thing if you're interested - http://voxilate.blogspot.com/2010/01/reduce-your-micro-start... - it could stand some updating, but still pretty much applies (plus, the user comment was spot-on).

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#83

Post by jen_h »

Harkins wrote: post #65
jen_h wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been doing this for going on two years now. Off-season--even just by a few weeks--rocks for better pricing. We've gotten a bunch of beautiful places very inexpensively off-season, after school starts, for example...this is in the US; for what we do, we need consistent & reliable Internet access, plus we're traveling with our pet. VRBO & HomeAway have been pretty solid senders, we've tried a bunch of other optio…

Funny, the only time I've had luck with VRBO/HomeAway is peak season, grabbing last-minute deals on things that would otherwise stand empty. :)

Yeah, had luck there, too. A couple of times the same day we emailed!

But there's a startup idea--someone should get on it if they haven't already--"Priceline for VRBO/HomeAway/AirBnB."

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#85

Post by jessedhillon »

soulbow wrote: post #49
jessedhillon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you 1000x for stating this. I've never heard of anyone doing anything significant and living this way. Before he made money selling books on how to design lifestyles, what did Chris Guillebeau do for money? Be a grad student, I think. (As in, live off his stipend.)

He's not the only one to lead this lifestyle and write about it. Tim Ferris started a sports supplement company to fund his travels before writing "The 4-Hour Work Week." One doesn't have to be a programmer or designer to lead a lifestyle like this, though those professions are more location independent by their nature.

> One doesn't have to be a programmer or designer to lead a lifestyle like this

That's not my point. My point is that, regardless of what you do work on, it will be rather inconsequential (by the norms of SV perhaps).

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#86

Post by jessedhillon »

econgeeker wrote: post #55

We've been doing this for three years now. This couple seemed to focus on having a year abroad, we've made it our lifestyle, and we're doing a startup (rather than consulting). I started this as a response to the "how to keep productive" question, but I'll try to address the other questions people have been asking in the thread later on. We also have the issue of taking some period of time to get back into the produc…

What is your startup? If it isn't the same answer, what are you doing to make money?

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#87

Post by ShirtlessRod »

josephcooney wrote: post #75
ilamont wrote: post #73

Living abroad in your 20s is an unforgettable experience. I lived in Europe and Asia for most of the 1990s, and still look back wistfully at that time of my life. I gave up some early career "juice" but got so much more out of it. Note that doing what the OP did is far more difficult if you have children, although it is possible to work stable jobs in a single country for longer stints with kids.

'more difficult if you have children' seems like a huge understatement. Especially if they're school-aged.

Massive, massive understatement. Not to mention if your children happen to have other issues, such as developmental disabilities, severe food allergies, or other things that make "normal" day-to-day living difficult, without adding the extra stressors related to travel and living abroad on top of that.

It is absolutely no coincidence that the vast majority of people who do these sorts of things have no children. This is not to say that I don't think it's commendable to get out in the world like this, because if you can it's a great thing. However, I get annoyed with folks who seem to think there couldn't be any possible reason that someone wouldn't do the same.

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#88

Post by Harkins »

georgieporgie wrote: post #64
Harkins wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web stuff works for me. Demand is high enough that there are companies willing to take part-time workers.

How do you go about finding new work remotely? Is it primarily return business from previous clients?

Return business is primary, yes. There's standard networking things like building a blog and being friendly, but also nonstandard networking: http://push.cx/craftsmanship-calendar

That calendar is way out of date now (it's on the TODO list to update tomorrowish), but spending time programming with people has done wonderful things for my network, my skills, my exposure to tech I'd otherwise ignore, my social skills, my vertical leap...

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#89

Post by Harkins »

keeptrying wrote: post #77
maccman wrote: post #30

I've been doing the same for 9 months now. I've travelled round the whole world, had a fantastic time, and wrote a book for O'Reilly as I went. It's been the best year of my life. In fact, it turns out that writing books is one of the best ways to do this - as it's very flexible and a successful book will just about cover traveling costs. What most people don't realize, is how cheap it is to do this. As always though…

You should write an ebook on how to do this.

There are several books about it. Off the top of my head... 4 Hour Work Week touches on it, Vagabonding by Rolf Potts has a version for lower-skilled workers, and Life Nomadic by Tynan is a free pdf.

Re: Don't be rich, Live rich

#90

Post by bignoggins »

My wife and I are currently doing something similar. Traveling the world (4 continents, 20+ countries). She's working on photography and blogging while I'm developing my own iphone apps. Best decision we've ever made, and haven't looked back since (been on the road for 3 months, currently at an airbnb in Taiwan). My wife keeps a blog at http://www.shenventure.com if you're interested in reading about how we did it.
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