July 25th, 2010

How can you afford to travel? — The rest of the story

Picture this:

There’s a sink-hole in front of you. It is bigger than you… in fact, it’s bigger than the house you live in.

This hole is roughly the size of:

• your house
• + your university
• + your car
• + anything unrelated those above items that  you walked by and thought “I have to have that… now”

You know that you need to fill this hole up as fast as you can.

And, you also know that it’s still sinking.

You may think it has stopped, but it hasn’t.  It may have stopped widening, but it’s still sinking.

To fill up this wide and gaping hole in front of you, you have a shovel. Now.

But, for years you’ve had only your hands and feet. You tried to kick and throw in as much dirt as you could to try and fill this hole, but it was widening and sinking faster than you could throw a handful of rocks in.

Now, though, since you’ve found that shovel, you can see that you’re making progress. There’s this bit at the bottom that appears to be filling. Finally.

What is that sink-hole? Debt.

Debt to the tune of: a mortgage, student loans, car loan, and unpaid credit card balances.

What causes it to continue sinking?
Interest on all of those loans.

What caused it to widen?
Your own spending…spending more on credit, or taking out another loan (car, school, etc.).

Nearly everyone has one of these sink-holes.

Jonathan and I do too.

And here’s the good news: We’re paying it off.

Two years ago, Jonathan and I canceled all our credit cards, choosing instead to live a cash-only lifestyle.

This means that if we don’t have the cash to buy something, we have to wait until we do.

We do this by asking ourselves “How can we afford this?”

Then we build businesses and income streams to afford whatever “this” is.

Two years ago, Jonathan and I had the following debt:

• $205,000 Home Mortgage
• $18,000 Car loan
• $40,000 Student loans (darn grad school)
• $22,000 Credit Card balances (from our Kilimanjaro 2006 trip, our wedding, and some from our honeymoon)

That gave us a total of $284,000 that we owed to other people…PLUS interest.

We were paying it, every month, but never felt like we were getting ahead.

So, our first order of business was to cancel our credit cards.

At least that way, we couldn’t spend anything more on them.

Then, we signed up for a program that would work with creditors on our credit card balances.

With their help, our interest rate dropped from an average of 22% to 6%. That’s a huge difference! (Contact us if you’d like to know more about this.)

Next, we took every spare penny we had, and put it towards paying off debt: credit cards first.

I’m proud to say, that after only 2 years, we have less than $6,000 left on our credit card balances.

And we sold the car that had the car payment.

That means that in 2 years, we’ve paid off over $47,000.

We have also had renters in our house for the last year, so for a year, our mortgage payment has been (mostly) paid for by someone else. (We still have some that we pay every month towards it (renters don’t cover the whole mortgage), but what we pay monthly is 1/14th (7% or so) of what we paid when we lived there.)

Still, today, we are putting every spare penny we have towards paying down debt.

In fact, all loans and everything else included we are currently putting 49% of our income towards debt repayment.  Hard to believe, right? (I couldn’t believe it myself until yesterday.)

When we started, about 25% of our income was going to debt repayment, and we weren’t getting ahead of it.

The good news is that in 10 months or less, we will be completely free of consumer debt / credit card balances, which will leave us with student loans and our mortgage.

Then, our sink-hole will start to fill up even faster, because for us, being debt-free (filling that sink-hole) is the most important way to spend our money right now.

So how can we afford to travel?

Hard work.  Really. Most people think we’re on vacation just because we’re traveling.  But the answer to how we afford to travel is that we work really hard.

We’re not working hard in the sense that “working hard” means to many people (being out digging ditches or doing manual labor), but figuring out all the moving pieces and the mental work required takes:

• Time
• Energy
• Willingness to be flexible
• Willingness to learn

Just to reiterate: we’re still working while we’re on our world travel.

That’s why being settled somewhere for a longer amount of time (here in New Zealand) has been so important to us. It allows us more time to work, and get set up to work a bit less for three months… then we’ll settle somewhere again and work really hard.

You may remember that we have about $1,830 / month to spend differently now that we’re traveling than we did when we lived in our home in Colorado. (We save that money on: transportation, phones, and housing.)

That amount is actually less now that we’re living in New Zealand and things here are more expensive than in Central / South America.

As much of that $1,830/month as possibly can is going to paying back our debts.

(Some times it feels like too much is going towards debt repayment. Because we do have to make choices and limit the tourist activities we do, because paying down our debt is more important to us right now.)

And now you know… the rest of the story.

Jonathan’s note: Looking at a mountain of debt is really hard.  What’s even harder is to gauge the size of a mountain when you have no idea how big it is.

If you are in debt on credit cards, a good place to start is by writing down everything you owe, and to whom.

I am also of the opinion that everyone should spend at least 1 month tracking everything they spend, and everything they earn.  Most people want to improve their money situation, but aren’t willing to do something as simple as tracking spending and earning. For whatever reason, it’s actually quite difficult to be disciplined enough to track it in-between 10-25 days.  After 30 days, it becomes easier.  But people freak out about money, without really knowing what their money picture is.

You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and you can’t measure what you don’t track. (It’s not really possible to improve something if you don’t what it’s basic measurement is.  It’s not really possible to measure something if you’re not tracking it’s actual size.)

If you want to know who we went through to help get our interest rates down, or want to know more about this process (a 4-year process for us so far), please post a comment below.

Books that helped us in this process:

Continue reading "How can you afford to travel? — The rest of the story" »

July 19th, 2010

7 Travel Questions: 7) Best Gems of Advice for Us

A friend of mine from high school asked me a few questions about how we afford to travel and do what we do.  I realized that these are questions Carrie and I get asked pretty frequently.  So I’m posting the answers to her seven questions in a series of posts on our site here.

Every person has to find their own path to getting whatever they want from life.  At the same time, it’s helpful in that path to have the knowledge and experience of others.  Some of this is worded pretty strongly, but as always, take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

7) best gems of advice for us, in your personal opinion.

If you’re traveling together:

• Take trial runs.  See if you will be okay spending that much time together.  Go away for a month together somewhere… Canada or Mexico maybe.  When you travel together, you will spend LOTS of time together on buses, trains, planes, boats, etc.  Make sure it works short-term before trying to make it work long-term.

We had:

• 2 Weeks together driving the desert Southwest from Greeley to Denver to Las Vegas to LA to Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon back to Denver (2004), before we had…
• 1 week together in Mexico (2004), before we had…
• 1 week together living on a house boat at lake Powell with my parents, sister, and neighbors (2005), before we had…
• 6 weeks together traveling around visiting family and friends on the east coast (2006), before we had…
• 6 weeks together (honeymoon) traveling around visiting family and friends in Europe (2007), before we had…
• 6 weeks together in a 2 bedroom apartment in Buenos Aires (April 2008), before we had…
• 3 weeks together in a 1 bedroom apartment in Germany (December 2008), before we had…
• 6 months together in a small 1 bedroom apartment in Denver (spring/summer 2009), before we…
• left on this travel (October 2009)

We learned a lot about each other’s habits and preferences in that time.  I recommend trial runs in smaller increments as we’ve met couples who are trying to discover the habits and preferences of each other while going through the challenges of traveling.

It’s better to know those things beforehand.

• Put together a list of the things you want to do in your life.  Put them someplace you can see them EVERY DAY.  Laminate a copy and put them in the shower.  I’m on my computer every day, so mine are actually my startup page in Firefox (rather than Google or Yahoo or something like that).  My friend James Martell has a service that will let you do this called PageLeap.com (it’s free).
• Always, always, always have each other’s back.  The person you’re traveling with has to always know you’re there for them.  No matter what, you’ve got the other person’s back in every situation.
• Listen to your intuition and basic wisdom.  There are things that are in fact true, even though they’re “too good to be true.”  Even though they’re true, and truly good deals, you are better off listening to your intuition and deciding that something “doesn’t feel right” or “might be the best deal on the planet, but still not worth it for the potential risk”.

  If it doesn’t feel right, avoid it.  Carrie and I felt something was off when we were walking down the street in Granada, Nicaragua.  Couldn’t tell what, but I suggested we cross the street.  We did.  If we hadn’t, we would have walked right into the middle of a heated exchange which turned into a shoving match between a couple of drunk guys.  If it doesn’t “feel” right, even though you don’t know why, go somewhere else… do something different.

• Based on our experience, many taxi drivers lie.  Their meters are rarely actually broken, and some will try to charge you different prices on arrival (getting into the taxi) than departure (when it’s time to pay).  The best solution to this is country specific, or maybe even situation specific.  Sometimes it’s best to agree to a price in advance.  In Costa Rica, we found it best to agree in advance. You can sometimes offer 1/ 2 – 3/4 of what they say the price is, not be willing to negotiate at all, but then once you start walking away to a different taxi, they will agree to your price.  In Guatemala, it was best to just pay something fair once we arrived at the destination.  The trick is knowing what’s a fair taxi rate.  This is where Google can be your best friend.  Do a Google search before going for “Fair Taxi rate CITYNAME, COUNTRYNAME”
• On that note, before going to a new country, know what the exchange rate is.  Changing money at the border is fine (there are always people in Central and South America at the borders trying to get you to change money, but you’ll often get the best rate at an ATM).  Factor in a 1-3% commission for the person changing the money for you before going to one of them to change money, and stick to no more than 3% commission.  If they won’t do it for that commission level, get the smallest amount you need at their commission rate to get a taxi to get to the nearest ATM.

Best practices apply… these things are good to do in any country anywhere in the world.

• Leave your passport somewhere safe unless you need to carry it with you.
• Carry your money divided in separate places, just in case something happens.
• If you don’t need to carry large sums of money, don’t.
• Always cover your PIN code with your hand at the ATM.
• Look at the front of the ATM slot to see if there’s some kind of card-reading device on it.

The list of these kinds of things goes on and on, but just basic rules apply… just maybe with a  greater degree of awareness because it’s sometimes more difficult to get things which are based out of the US taken care of when you’re out of the US.

I’m sure I’ll have more nuggets of “wisdomish” kinds of things, but these are the things which come to mind at the moment.

So, where are you going to start your travel?

Let me answer that question for you…

At the bookstore.  Where you’re going to buy Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Continue reading "7 Travel Questions: 7) Best Gems of Advice for Us" »

July 12th, 2010

7 Travel Questions: 6) How To Pack and What To Take

A friend of mine from high school asked me a few questions about how we afford to travel and do what we do.  I realized that these are questions Carrie and I get asked pretty frequently.  So I’m posting the answers to her seven questions in a series of posts on our site here.

Every person has to find their own path to getting whatever they want from life.  At the same time, it’s helpful in that path to have the knowledge and experience of others.  Some of this is worded pretty strongly, but as always, take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

Question 6.) Are you basically backpacking it, possessions-wise?

Yep and nope.  Carrie has a rolling suitcase, I have a rolling suitcase.

Carrie has a school-sized backpack, and I have a school-sized backpack.

We carry our electronics stuff with us in our backpacks most of the time.  Clothing goes in the wheely suitcase.

If you’re really moving around a lot, I recommend a big (backpacker’s style) backpack.  If you plan to actually experience a place, you’ll want to stay a bit longer.  We’ve found it’s cheaper to travel by getting apartments in various places in the world.  For this, rolling suitcases are much better both for your posture and for your stress level at the end of the day.

Clothing-wise:

Carrie travels with:

• 7 shirts
• two pairs of convertible shorts/pants (zip-off legs)
• a sweater
• 2 pairs of jeans
• 10 each of socks/underwear
• a couple of swimsuits
• hat, gloves, heavy coat (with zipper fleece lining that comes out so it can also be a windbreaker – 3 jackets in 1)
• 2 pairs of shoes (this is the hardest area for Carrie as she loves shoes)

I travel with:

• 10-12 shirts
• two pairs of convertible shorts/pants (zip-off legs)
• a sweater
• 2 pairs of jeans
• 10 each of socks/underwear
• a couple of swimsuits
• hat, gloves, heavy coat (with zipper fleece lining that comes out so it can also be a windbreaker – 3 jackets in 1)
• 1 pair of shoes
• 1 pair of hiking boots

We also travel with:

• a sharp kitchen knife (we like to cook)
• 2 snorkel masks and snorkels
• toothpaste, toothbrushes, bandaids
• deodorant (becomes very necessary sometimes)
• various other toiletries items
• power conversion stuff…

Question 6a.) Doesn’t that get boring wearing just the few clothes you’ve packed?
Sometimes. Yep. But there are always things to do and go and see. Clothing is minimal when traveling, and the less you have to carry, the better off you are.

So yes, we are basically backpacking it, but in wheely suitcases.  The wheely suitcases have always been fine, even for our brief 7-day stint (when we dragged them through mud) deep in the jungle in Costa Rica.

Continue reading "7 Travel Questions: 6) How To Pack and What To Take" »

July 5th, 2010

7 Travel Questions: 5) Banking While Traveling

A friend of mine from high school asked me a few questions about how we afford to travel and do what we do.  I realized that these are questions Carrie and I get asked pretty frequently.  So I’m posting the answers to her seven questions in a series of posts on our site here.

Every person has to find their own path to getting whatever they want from life.  At the same time, it’s helpful in that path to have the knowledge and experience of others.  Some of this is worded pretty strongly, but as always, take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

5) how do you handle money? Do you just change banks everywhere you go?

We have our local bank in Colorado.

All of our banking is together (we both have access to our accounts – unless Carrie has some hidden account that I know nothing about.  But if she does, that’s actually a good thing since I’m the spender in the relationship).

Most of our income is based on direct deposit or payment into PayPal.

Visa and Mastercard are accepted most places in the world.

ATM’s are generally good around the world, though the ones we used in Central America were frequently out of money.

Frequently we end up paying a little fee (usually $1-$3) to withdraw money, but that’s not a big deal and could just as easily be happening anywhere in the US.

Since we’re not earning income from the countries we’re visiting, we don’t really have any need to make deposits.

We have an assistant in Colorado whom we pay on an hourly basis.  Our mail goes to our PO Box with EarthClassMail, where it is scanned.  We can view our mail scans from anywhere.  Checks and bills needing to be paid get forwarded from EarthClassMail to our assistant.  We trust her 100% as she’s also a personal friend.  She deposits the few checks we get, and pays the few bills that can’t be paid via debit card.

And that is how we do our banking while traveling.

This is surprisingly simple, but it does help to have people working at the bank who know us by name and voice.  Traveling or not, having a good relationship with a good person at (at least one branch of) your bank is definitely highly recommended.

Continue reading "7 Travel Questions: 5) Banking While Traveling" »

June 28th, 2010

7 Travel Questions: 4) How to Handle Family Relationships

A friend of mine from high school asked me a few questions about how we afford to travel and do what we do.  I realized that these are questions Carrie and I get asked pretty frequently.  So I’m posting the answers to her seven questions in a series of posts on our site here.

Every person has to find their own path to getting whatever they want from life.  At the same time, it’s helpful in that path to have the knowledge and experience of others.  Some of this is worded pretty strongly, but as always, take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

I miss my family.  But we’re not planning on traveling forever.  And it feels like there’s this window of time in our lives where we can do this… before kids, before our parents might need our help in their later years, before having a house, property, etc.

Nearly everyone tells us that now is the best time in our lives to be doing this kind of travel (around the world in 2ish years) so we listen to those people, knowing this is an opportunity we are taking advantage of.

We are also doing it as a business… traveling, blogging our travels, building relationships and seeking out opportunities for the future.

The work we’re doing now is setting us up for all kinds of *passive* and *residual* opportunities in the future.

If Carrie or I had a traditional “job”, and that job was telling us we had to travel the world for a year or we would lose our job, I imagine there would be more of an understanding about why we’re traveling the way we are.

But most people aren’t in the mentality of:

• going to explore the opportunities
• going to see what there is to see
• actually fulfilling dreams and realizing goals is what life’s about
• to say you’ve done it, and/or
• because technology and the time we live in allows you to

I think that most people want the safe and secure options.  They want safe and secure options for you too.

Or maybe it’s just that your family and friends want to spend time with you.  Which you should take as a compliment.

So I don’t have definite answers on how to get your family and friends to be in support of a traveling lifestyle, except to say that if your family isn’t supportive or doesn’t seem supportive of your desire to travel, it’s probably because they love you.

They are:

• concerned about your welfare, and
• they are worried that the world is dangerous (often people are under the impression that “foreign” places are more dangerous than they actually are), or perhaps
• they afraid that you might not have the skills to face the different kinds of challenges you inevitably face in a foreign place.

Regardless, they want to spend as much time with you as they can.

Your traveling gives them (legitimate) cause for concern that they won’t be able to spend the time with you that they want, and that it’s somehow more dangerous for you to be traveling than staying at home, which in most cases is not really true.

Unless you’re traveling somewhere like Somalia or places where crime against foreigners is a regular event and government (if it really exists at all) often looks the other way.

There are few places in the world where this is the case.

So research to avoid those places.  However, based on having traveled for months and having always been able to go other places and avoid these kinds of situations, they are the exception, rather than the rule.

Be true to yourself and what you want, and do your best to understand what your family and friends are really saying – not with their words, but with the emotion behind their words.

An adamantly stated “you shouldn’t go,” from a loved one can easily be “You shouldn’t go… because I will miss you so much that my heart will nearly break.”

Be patient.  Be honest.

I think that’s the best advice when it comes to anything, but especially when it’s family related.

Continue reading "7 Travel Questions: 4) How to Handle Family Relationships" »

June 21st, 2010

7 Travel Questions: 3) How Are You Able to Find Housing and Accommodation? Do You Arrange It Before You Arrive?

A friend of mine from high school asked me a few questions about how we afford to travel and do what we do.  I realized that these are questions Carrie and I get asked pretty frequently.  So I’m posting the answers to her seven questions in a series of posts on our site here.

Every person has to find their own path to getting whatever they want from life.  At the same time, it’s helpful in that path to have the knowledge and experience of others.  Some of this is worded pretty strongly, but as always, take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

Depends a lot on the country and circumstances.  After a really bad apartment experience in Buenos Aires in 2008, we learned to inspect a place thoroughly on first inspection.  We also learned that if we don’t have a place lined up, don’t push it.  It’s always better to spend $10-$20 more for a night or two in a hotel while hunting for a place, as opposed to paying hundreds or thousands to stay in an apartment for a month that you won’t like or that has ants and spiders crawling all around the bathroom.

Actually, up until October 2009, Buenos Aires was our only travel experience where we didn’t stay with family or friends or have a hotel pre-arranged through a tour package of some kind.  For longer stays, we use sites like VRBO.com and Viviun.com, or do a simple Google search for “Vacation Rental CITYNAME, COUNTRYNAME” or “Apartment rental CITYNAME, COUNTRYNAME”.  For shorter stays, TripAdvisor.com is a great site that we use frequently because it’s generally real reviews from real people who have stayed there before… and you can get a good idea for price of an area.

Some areas have been more difficult.  The most surprising difficult search was here in Christchurch, NZ, but we’re in an apartment now that we’re quite pleased with, completely furnished and all utilities for about $770 for the month.

Continue reading "7 Travel Questions: 3) How Are You Able to Find Housing and Accommodation? Do You Arrange It Before You Arrive?" »

June 14th, 2010

7 Travel Questions: 2) How Easy Is It To Handle Changing Visas Or Acquire Them in the First Place While Abroad?

A friend of mine from high school asked me a few questions about how we afford to travel and do what we do.  I realized that these are questions Carrie and I get asked pretty frequently.  So I’m posting the answers to her seven questions in a series of posts on our site here.

Every person has to find their own path to getting whatever they want from life.  At the same time, it’s helpful in that path to have the knowledge and experience of others.  Some of this is worded pretty strongly, but as always, take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

Central America doesn’t require a lot of visas… in fact, for us they didn’t require anything significant.  But the borders are nonetheless a bit intimidating.  When crossing borders, we always travel with proof of exiting a country.  This is a requirement for many countries in the world, and they can make you buy a ticket out of the country (via bus or plane) if you don’t have proof that you are traveling on, and not staying in, a particular country.  It’s a fundraiser in many places.

We haven’t gone to tricky visa countries yet, so maybe I’ll have more information on that when we do, but we do always travel across borders with a proof that we are exiting the country within 3 months of the time we land (3 months seems to be the standard tourist visa).

Side note:  Getting extra pages in our passports in Ecuador was quite simple.  We went to the U.S. embassy, told them we wanted more pages, waited 40 minutes, and got our passports back with more pages in them.  It was free.

Continue reading "7 Travel Questions: 2) How Easy Is It To Handle Changing Visas Or Acquire Them in the First Place While Abroad?" »

June 7th, 2010

7 Travel Questions: 1) How Do You Support Yourselves and Fund Your Travels As You Move From Place to Place?

A friend of mine from high school asked me a few questions about how we afford to travel and do what we do.  I realized that these are questions Carrie and I get asked pretty frequently.  So I’m posting the answers to her seven questions in a series of posts on our site here.

Every person has to find their own path to getting whatever they want from life.  At the same time, it’s helpful in that path to have the knowledge and experience of others.  Some of this is worded pretty strongly, but as always, take what works for you and leave the rest for someone else.

Most people don’t want to know the actual answers to this question…

They want the 30 second elevator speech, so that they can move on to other things.  Or, once they learn that there is no “magic bullet” or “Secret”,  they don’t want to do the work necessary to make it a reality in their lives.

However, since you seem legitimately interested, I’m going to spend some time responding to your questions.  I hope you’ll take the time not just to read what I’m sending you, but to do the homework and actually apply these things.

If traveling the world and having the money to do it on more than $5/day (or even extravagantly – though we’re not yet at that level) are things you want to do, this should be very helpful for you.

Heck, this will even be good just for being able to have a good and enjoyable life.

-          I read a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.  I HIGHLY recommend it.

-          Once you’ve read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, read the follow up called “Cashflow Quadrant”.

-          For extra credit, and only AFTER you’ve read the previous two books, read a book called “The Four Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss.

-          STOP HERE.  GO BUY THE BOOKS.  I’m not even kidding.

-          DID YOU BUY THE BOOKS?

-          They’re available on Amazon.com.

-          Go get them.

-          At least get Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

-          If you’ve already read it, go buy Cashflow Quadrant.

-          I bought Rich Dad, Poor Dad for a friend of Carrie’s one time.

-          She promised me that if I bought it for her, she would read it.

-          She didn’t read it.

-          Bummer.

-          HAVE YOU GOT THE BOOK?  (I bet not.  But if you did, then GOOD.)  If you’ve got it ordered and on it’s way, then we can move on…

-          The Internet: Without access to manage things, communicate, and build content via the web, we wouldn’t be traveling.  I’ve spent untold hours learning how to market and communicate using the most powerful tool ever invented, the Internet.  Carrie’s really good at using the Internet effectively as well.

-          Passive income: Passive income is money that comes to you whether you’re currently putting in the time or effort for it or not.  This is usually income that comes to you for work you did at some point in the past.

• (I used to be a teacher.  I haven’t seen most of my former students since 2004.  If I could somehow be financially rewarded every time a student used some piece of knowledge I gave him/her, I would be getting passive income.  Credit card interest is another example.  You buy something, but you don’t pay it off.  When you do, you pay it back with interest.  You are a source of passive income for the credit card company.

-          Residual income.  Residual Income is money that comes in every month, every year, or at some other specified interval.

• How long have you had your TV service?  When did you get sold on cable/dish?  As long as they keep providing the service you bought, you keep paying them.  They have a residual income source from you.

The biggest problem people have when trying to think about passive and residual income is changing their mind.

I’m very much still guilty of this.  If there are people who passively, or residually, earn $50,000/month or $100,000/month, then why not me?  Because sometimes, $100,000/month seems like an insurmountable amount of money.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Learn about passive income.  Learn about residual income.  A mindset of working for passive and residual income is, first and foremost, what allows us to travel.

Again, more than any strategy or tactic or method, the thing which allows us to travel is having a mindset of working for passive and residual income.

If you want to travel the way we do, you will want to discover ways to earn passive income and residual income.  Maybe your ways will or won’t have something to do with the Internet.  But I can tell you about 200 or more things I’ve tried in an attempt to earn passive and residual income, and maybe 15-20 that have actually worked.

Sites we earn money through right now:

-          YouTube

-          Facebook

-          Various coupon sites

-          MySpace videos

-          EZineArticles.com

-          Sites listed on our ventures page

I also own 112 web addresses in total, and many of them produce no revenue.

So I’m hit or miss on the methods and strategies.

However, the best answer I can give you for question #1 is learn everything you can about passive income, and residual income.

Apply yourself, full-force, to finding ways of getting that kind of income flowing into your life.

Continue reading "7 Travel Questions: 1) How Do You Support Yourselves and Fund Your Travels As You Move From Place to Place?" »

June 5th, 2010

Not So Frequently Asked Questions: 2nd Edition

These are real searches conducted by people who arrive on our website.

I like to see how people get here.

Some of them are funny and some are just plain odd.

$2.50 can buy what?
I think the reason you came to our site was to discover how much $2.50 will buy you at the local market in Boquete, Panama.

alcohol selection marina el cid
The alcohol selection at the El Cid Resort near Cancun is good.  Really good.  In fact, I think they had lots of top shelf kinds of alcohol.  Or did they?  Hmmm… don’t really remember.  Must have been good.

apt for rent in boquete
Well, you can check with our friends and perhaps rent one of their places.

Continue reading "Not So Frequently Asked Questions: 2nd Edition" »

December 22nd, 2009

Carrie’s Current countries visited

visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World
On our trip through Central America, I got to add 6 countries to my map of visited countries. It’s too bad not all of them have a stamp representation in my passport.
I’ve actually been to more countries that this, but I didn’t spend the night, so they don’t count. I’ve been to France numerous times when I lived in Germany, and I also drove through Austria. They’ll be added to the list sometime soon through.

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