One recent evening we asked on Twitter & Facebook for questions you had for us. Many where things we’ve addressed before.
So seemed like a great time to put together a post that helps you explore our archives from our past years of travel.
Q 1: How can I earn an income on the road, and is there really such a thing as ‘Passive Income’?
There are so many ways to earn an income on the road – from working online, like we do – to taking temporary jobs as you travel. Some styles will allow you to work from wherever you choose and others you will be traveling to where the work needs you.
Some funding sources that can integrate in a lot of travel might include: artists, musicians, festival workers, truck drivers, migrant workers, craftsmen, contract medical staff, journalists, photographers, performers, cruise ship staff, house/pet sitters, military, speakers, trainers, workampers, technicians, waiters and many more.
Some funding choices that can be done online might include: programmers, developers, IT managers, database managers, bookkeepers, personal coaches, writers, editors, bloggers, podcasters, affiliate sales, graphic designers, online professors, coaches, consultants and more.
The fundamental key is putting your priorities of full time travel first, and designing your funding source around it. I personally feel that most folks have the capability of finding work that is travel friendly when it’s put as a priority. It may not seem easy at first, and there may very well be good reasons to tempt you into career choices that don’t support your traveling desires.
As far as the holy grail of passive income, I’m sure it is possible. But I seem to suck at making it happen in a long term sustainable way. And it seems that many claiming they do, actually put quite a bit of work into making it happen and continue to happen – so I wouldn’t really call it completely passive. Personally, we don’t mind, we actually enjoy working to earn our keep and it was never our goal to escape work. We prefer to focus on choosing something that inspires us.
Our posts related to earning a mobile income:
Financial Realities of eProducts
Q 2: Do you have any sponsors for your travel, and have you approached any publishers to write a book?
No, we long ago opted to not try to generate an income stream off of our blog, and thus rarely even consider advertisers nevermind a full on sponsor. But heck, we don’t discount that there may be an opportunity that will seem like a perfect fit.
We continue blogging because we enjoy it and the awesome people we get to meet as a result. We completely fund our travels through work projects that aren’t related to this blog. We decided that we never wanted to come to depend on having to post about our awesome day just to fund having our next awesome adventure. It seemed ripe with potential to get into a loop that could lead to burn out. I mean, what if we’re not feeling like having an awesome adventure or writing about it? By not building up our blog to be our source of income, we feel we have a great deal of freedom to post what’s authentically up for us without worrying about it impacting our livelihood.
As far as publishing a book? It’s been a passing thought on occasion. But we honestly feel the market is pretty saturated with nomadic how-tos and stories. And we’ve heard that writing a book is a lot of work, with a low return. So it’s not terribly enticing to delve into.
Our post on why we blog:
Q 3: How do you have your business setup, how do you stay in touch with clients and how do you find your clients?
I actually took my existing custom software development business that I’ve run with my parents for the past 17 years (and them since the late 70s) on the road. As we ran the business out of our homes previously with intentions early on for it to be ‘location independent’, very little has actually changed in how its run. Heck, my parents are now starting to experiment with being part time digital nomads as they blend in partial retirement.
Our clients were already used to us communicating via e-mail, phone and even instant messaging. We occasionally arrange for onsite visits to kick-off major projects. They all know I’m mobile (some of them even read this blog *wave*), and that sometimes it may take a day or two for me to respond if we’re not within range of connectivity. It’s all about setting appropriate expectations and planning to be in connectivity when we know we’ll need to be.
As my parents and I have very different medical insurance needs, Chris and I did spin off our own little company (registered as an LLC partnership in the state of Florida), and we continue to work hand and hand with my parents and our other contract programmers on clients I’ve had for well over a decade. And through our company, we also take on other tech consulting gigs and launch our travel mobile apps.
As far as how we find our clients – it actually works that they find us. Both Chris and I have strong backgrounds in our complimentary tech careers, and a lot of contacts. Most our work opportunities come via word of mouth, reputation and good old fashioned networking.
I know, our story doesn’t really help folks looking to start a new mobile-friendly career – and that’s one reason we don’t share much about it here (the other is to rightfully protect my client’s privacy). I do consider myself very blessed to have made the choices I did at a very early age to follow a career path that has given me a great deal of freedom to live my life as I wish, while doing things that absolutely inspire me. And, that’s key – whatever you do, make choices around what are your priorities.
A video interview we did with our lawyer about setting up mobile businesses:
Nomad-Friendly Small Business Lawyer
Q 4. How do I find the right RV?
A few folks asked us for advice on selecting an RV for full time living. This is such a difficult question to answer, as everyone’s needs, preferences and budgets are going to be different. We’ve met people thriving in such a variety of setups, that it’s not as simple as pointing you to a specific brand or style.
Our general advice is to go look at as many RVs as you possibly can and get a feel for what feels right. Even if you’re not interested in a brand new shiny rig, going to several dealer lots and RV shows will give you a lot of options and floorplans to look at to better get an idea about what feels right to you. Look for a high quality build, as mosts RVs are meant for occasional long weekends (remember – it’s ‘recreational vehicle’ for a reason) and will tend to show their age quickly. Living in one full time will wear it out even faster.
Keep in mind, your home on wheels is like having a house that is undergoing a constant earthquake.
Also consider the type of camping you’d like to do – a RV suitable for hopping from hook-up to hook-up at RV Parks is going to be configured much differently than one suitable for off-grid boondocking. We also recommend not focusing too hard on finding your perfect setup – get something that seems workable, with plans to trade-up (or down) to your ideal rig after you’ve gotten a solid idea about what your form of travel is. You really won’t know until you’ve done it for several months to a couple years.
Our post on picking a RV:
Considerations for Selecting a Home on Wheels
Q 5. How do you handle the mundane things, like personal hygiene and laundry?
Nomads can keep clean!
Obviously, when traveling via RV (or sailboat) freshwater will be limited to what you can carry with you. So one does need to get used to ultra conserving water. And that’s actually a useful goal for everyone. We’ve learned to take very short showers (or just using baby wipes) and using a spray bottle with soapy water to presoak dishes. And even here in the USVI, where we live off a water cistern, a lot of what we got used to in the RV conveys.
Another trick of mine, is that I haven’t shampoo’d my hair since 2007 (wow.. I can’t believe it’s been that long!). Instead, I use baking soda and an apple cider vinegar rinse once a week or so. Not only does this save lots of water, my naturally curly hair has never been healthier! I honestly thought it would be a whacky hippy thing I’d try for a couple months – but I love it. Chris has also been no-poo for a couple years now after seeing my success with it (and for anyone who’s met him, he has the most enviable silky long hair!)
The first RV we traveled in (the 16′ T@B) actually didn’t have a bathroom – just a little cassette potty that we used for emergencies. So we relied on baby wipes, campground showers, public restrooms & trees (and a Folger’s can for those night time urgent needs) and use of friend’s facilities. It was certainly doable and taught us a lot about how little us humans really need to happily survive. But it did get old (but not as old as converting our bed to a work table daily).
A personal hygiene tip for my fellow female nomads:
For menstruating women – I absolutely found my reusable silicon menstrual cup (Diva Cup) to be a travel essential. It was small, produced no trash, was extremely comfortable to wear, was a one-time purchase and allowed me to completely forget my period for 12 hrs at a time. It was my best friend. I actually miss using it since I had my hysterectomy three years ago. Why these things aren’t more popular, I’ll never understand. Every women who’s taken my advice to get one continually thanks me for changing their lives.
For laundry – when traveling via RV we used a combination of coin operated laundry at campgrounds or folks we visited were quite kind to offer use of theirs. We actually found we liked coin operated laundry, as we could run multiple loads at once and get the whole chore done quickly while having lunch. Here in the USVI, our little apartment includes a washer/dryer – which has been a complete luxury!
Our past posts on water and hygiene:
How to Handle Excuse #11: Conserving Water
Q 6. How do you handle logistical things, like banking, mail, visas and taxes?
All of our mail goes to our mail forwarding service in South Dakota (who also acts as our legal domicile address), and then they forward it on to us as per our request.
For banking, we haven’t found the perfect solution yet. We do like Chase, as their mobile banking iPhone app is excellent – even allowing us to deposit checks while naked in bed by uploading a photo of the check. (It’s amazing how many checks make it into our lives.) We also like their free QuickPay solution, that allows us to send & receive funds from anyone with an e-mail address and a bank account. Unfortunately, they just changed their terms of service from free with no minimum balance to requiring either substantial minimum balances or a pretty steep monthly fee. That adds up when we have 3 personal accounts (2 individual and 1 joint) and a business account (all with low transactions, as most our purchases go on a rewards credit card that we pay off monthly). So we’re on the look out for another solution.
We’ve also used ING Direct, but honestly don’t feel they’re keeping up with technology fast enough – after all, a completely online bank should have deposit by mobile device by now! One of our clients insist on paying by check, so we just have the check sent to my parents, who walk it to the bank for us. You’d think with all this high tech, checks would be obsolete by now.
For taxes, we only have to worry about federal, as neither South Dakota or Florida has state income tax- and we file those online. In 2009 however, we did work peak season at Amazon.com in Kansas, and had to file a state return. It was a pain in the butt. We’re very careful when visiting other states and working (even remotely), as some can try to collect taxes from you even for income generated while not in their state.
Visas – we haven’t had to deal with that yet, as we’ve kept our travels domestic thus far. But the future may bring that challenge to us to figure out.
Our post on logistics:
How to Handle Excuse #9: Logistics
Q 7. How has your sense of community changed?
It’s definitely shifted around quite a bit for us over the years. At first, I thought it would be the thing I missed most and would tempt me off the road. Then we changed how we approached community to being a wider net via our travels, by establishing ourselves in different cities that we visit often. We also put a lot of effort into connecting with other nomads, with frequent rendezvouses.
We did a post about this a while back, and it still holds true. But I will say, with as wonderful as our time on St. John has been – we are feeling very isolated community wise. We have made local friends here, hosted couchsurfers and met up with other nomads – and that’s been wonderful. But we are very much missing the communities we had begun to feel part of and now feel disconnected from. It’s a natural ebb and flow – when you’re away, you are on the backburner in most people’s lives. And when you’re around, you become a priority. Right now, we feel on the backburner to everyone and generally only get Twitter length updates from friends. It can be tough sometimes.
At the same time, we had definitely reached an overabundance of awesome community prior to arriving on St. John, and were feeling a bit of a need to isolate ourselves for a bit. It’s all about balance, and having the flexibility to change your course to get your needs met.
Our posts on community:
How to Handle Excuse #7: Community
What adjustments did you do to your MINI? I have Toad my 2007 Cooper Convert (Stick) behind my Class C RV for about 20,000 miles using the Blue Ox tow bar and rock guard. I now have a problem with my throwout bearing in the clutch and my mechanic thinks it might be due to my towing the car. Any thoughts?
Whip
Hi Whip – we actually don’t have much info to share on towing a MINI. We bought ours from a friend who had been towing it for a while, so didn’t do much research into it. Good luck!
I just ran across your blog and this article and posted a link from my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Charlena-Miller/355271192334. I resonated with so much that you wrote. I am unlikely to be a permanent nomadic but up and purged, sold, donated pretty much everything a couple of years ago and took off with a one-way plane ticket to travel and change careers to writing full-time. I am still on the journey and have had the most amazing experiences as a solo traveler who is also an introvert. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your journey with the rest of us.
~Charlena
Just discovered this blog, great read! I’m looking for tips that I don’t already use as I’ve been partially mobile since 2001, and after a short “settled” period, I’m looking at getting on the move again in the near future.
At the moment, my occupation is IT related, and totally mobile (we don’t even have an office at the moment), but my partner is tied to a medical job, so we’re looking at ways of widening our options…
One of my problems is working (or playing) with relatively long term physical projects that involve hardware that take up significant space on the workbench. Do you ever encounter that type of situation? If so, have you found a solution?
Thanks for the blog, most interesting.
Hi Daniel.. thanks for stopping by!
There haven’t been too many times that we’ve wished for a workbench sort of space, but I have come up with ways to do some minor crafting as we roam by keeping things portable and easy to take down and put back up. For me, I just have a little tupperware box with my crafting supplies, and can set up on a picnic table.
We have encountered others doing some pretty epic stuff tho by traveling with a woodshop, tattoo studio, etc. Lots of crafty folks making (and selling) stuff on the road. Some just tack on a work trailer to the back of their rig and pull it around, creating a mobile workspace that is generally always set up. Others get networked in with the various DIY workshops around the country (such as TechShop in San Francisco) where they have all the tools in place already.
Adding to what Cherie said… When we do have space to spread out, we take advantage of it. I’ve really enjoyed being able to have a three-screen desktop here in the Virgin Islands while working on some programming projects. Spreading out makes things so much more efficient!
But – even in tight quarters, I have loved using an iPad as a second monitor via AIrDisplay. Every bit of screen space helps! 🙂
Good post and dialog. My paradigm of banking needs has evolved over the years into a portfolio view. Even if you found a total solution once upon a time expecting it to stay “best” sounds passive. It’s prudent to keep shopping around and roll with the changes. 🙂
It may indeed be prudent, but that doesn’t mean it’s an enjoyable process 🙂
Enjoyable for whom? Nomadic money – there’s a concept. 🙂
I enjoy finding better deals; looking just helps a lot. 🙂
Yep – have to admit that the secondary bank thing is less than ideal. Generally, we can avoid writing checks but, like you, not always. We opened a no-frills, no-charge account at US Bank, and that has worked just fine, so far. We usually carry enough cash to take care of the cash/check-only RV parks, and a book of checks for the rest of them. (Just move cash to/from ING to cover whatever I think I’ll need to write) & regularly check the “free ATMS” link at ING, so I can replenish my cash. I agree it would be nice if ING technology were better – or people were smarter about understanding online banking! Suppose I’m happier with it because I remember what a hassle handling money on the road was a decade ago!
We were actually rather coming to like Chase’s setup, with their bank by iPhone and QuickPay (a much easier to understand version of Person2Person – as the receiver doesn’t have to be convinced to give us their bank account info to use it), and all of the features of a traditional bank.
But we’re rather miffed at their very steep increase in fees from $0 and $0 minimum balance to now suddenly $51/mo or $9500 in minimum balances for our 4 accounts with them. Ridiculous. Not that we mind paying a reasonable fee for services we use – but our accounts are so low-transaction, that their new fee structure is just mind boggling to us. So.. on the lookout for the right solution for us… again.
I worked in banking back in the early 90s, and things have definitely changed and improved a lot since then. But still a long way to go too!
I’m back! I keep reading the banking responses and thinking “ya know, my Mom & her husband have been both full-timers and snowbirds. I should ask her what they do” – because if anyone has researched fully which banks give the best options and benefits and still work for full-timers? She’ll know.
And then I realized a better way to do that would be to write this comment – then link her over here. She’s awesome and would love the conversations that happen here.
There are some benefits to be a 2nd generation modern gypsy. 😉
Awesome.. I look forward to virtually meeting your mom!
What a delight to find out about you! We started full-timing in 1998, and with any sense we’d still be at it. Now only run away 4-5 months. Although we were retired, many of our friends worked, & many using the internet – back in tthe dial-up days!
But L’s question was about banking, so:
ING Direct. Hands down, fulltiming or not. Started banking there while we were still oon the road, but would never even think of going elsewhere. Total internet access. Always-highest interest rates. No fees. Free bill-pay. Free ATMs worldwide. Extraordinary management/attitude. What’s not to love?
Thanks for stopping by Pamela!
INGDirect is a bank we currently use in our arsenal, and thought would be a perfect banking solution for us digital nomads. But alas, they’re falling way behind on the technology curve. While banks like USAA and Chase now have deposit-by-iPhone for checks (which is super sweet) – ING still requires you to either having another traditional account to deposit checks at and then transfer in, or mailing them your check.
And while I appreciate they are trying to be a totally online bank with no physical checks – checks are still a reality of life, and amazingly, I deal with them far more often now that we’re mobile.
So, we still have to keep a separate account for those few times we need to write one. Most places and people we encounter simply are too unfamiliar with their Person2Person concept to accept it, especially from us transients 🙂
For instance, we once needed to buy a new tow vehicle – and had no way to access our cash for it as it was all in ING. No time to transfer funds to an account where we could write a check (which the dealer would accept), and they wouldn’t even consider a Person2Person payment because that was just ‘too weird’. So, we were forced to take out a loan and then pay it off immediately. We’ve had many other such encounters – such as RV Parks that only take cash/check (and we don’t carry enough cash with us to pay for a month of RV Parking in big cities, like San Francisco).
So sadly.. can’t fully recommend ING as a total solution unless they kick the technology up a notch or two. And while their interest rates are still good in comparison to others, 1% is not enough of a carrot to keep our stash there. (When interest rates in general were decent – it made it totally worthwhile to keep our cash reserves there.)
Wow. Tell me there’s not a huge market being under served here. It’s not exactly like this mostly-or-fully-mobile population is a new phenomenon, is it?
I suppose when you consider that it’s the banking industry it makes more sense that they are dragging their heels on innovation but still…
I’m sorry there isn’t a ready solution at the moment, but I will keep on this. Glad you guys connected whatever the case!
We’ve been in talks with the folks putting together BankSimple.com – and it looks promising. They intend to incorporate a lot of the features for personal nomad friendly banking, at any rate. We’re anxious to see what they debut with and well they’re received.
Wamu paid me $100 to open a checking acount a little over a year ago, and Chase made me close it by charging fees.
I’m surprised noone mentioned credit unions. Besides free checking, mine gives me services like free notary. No atm fees for me to withdraw at almost any credit union, and less for interational transactions than most banks.
Yeah, we actually started out with WAMU too, they were awesome. But obviously their model didn’t work out so well financially for them.
Credit unions are great in some ways, but we’ve not found them to be overly useful as a primary bank for us on the road. I do still keep my personal credit union account, and know I have ATM access at credit unions across the country. But things like depositing checks outside your geographic area (aside from mailing them in) just aren’t there. And mine at least, doesn’t have thing like QuickPay and easy transfers to external accounts (well, mine does.. but they charge for it.) And there are just times when I need to do things in person – like getting a cashier’s check, using a notary, cashing a savings bond, etc. – that I need a bricks-and-mortar option. Chase has provided all of that for us, and the credit union hasn’t.
So yeah, credit unions great.. if you only need limited access to them while traveling.
Hi-
Really enjoy reading your blogs, posts, etc. Have done a bit of life on the road and suffered thru many a banking issue. Am also looking to leave Chase so read your input and the readers’ with interest. Will keep looking and share when something better turns up.
On the shampoo issue, haven’t used any for well over a decade. Oh, the occasional rinse, especially after swimming or doing dirty, dusty work but not otherwise. Hair does clean itself. I’ve friends who’ve gone even longer. Just get those adverts out of your head (lather/rinse/repeat) and let it go. First weeks might be tough, mentally, but stick with it. Saves masses of money and time.
Cheers- Monroe
It’s a shame that Chase has made such a drastic change from free to stupidly expensive in such a short term. They do offer so many features that are great for us travelers. Do let us know if you find something better.
And totally agreed on the initial transition phase of going shampoo free, breaking the habit of lathering up, and allowing your natural oils to find their balance. But once you get through it, it’s so worth it! Saves money, time, water, the environment and is healthier for your hair too! Win all around.
Wow…wow…and wow! Great blog! I’m getting so excited to make the huge 180 degree shift from standard JOB to adventure, creativity and a sense of adventure!
I am a long hair..love it and the shower thing is one of my concerns. I know that making the move to no shampoo is possible but it just seems like such a crazy transition to make while working the 9-5. Can you post a little more on the reccipe you use?
Thanks
Brian
Hi Brian.. congrats on your upcoming adventure!
The link in the post above explains how I do the no-poo thing, and has a link to the source I got the information from.
Best wishes !
These are great answers to very common questions! If you don’t mind, next week, I am planning on running a post in the RTW in Retrospect series on working while traveling, and I would love to get your thoughts about it. If that sounds cool with you, I’ll send you an email next week with details.
Hi Akila.. that would be awesome, would be happy to contribute our perspective to working & living on the road. Feel free to e-mail us at us@technomadia.com whenever you’re ready.
Thanks for stopping by!
Fantastic post. I learned so much about you two! That is amazing to have that background in software development. You and your parents were very far ahead of your time. You have a very good point about burn out. You are lucky that you have another way of making money outside of blogging. It can be very difficult to keep up with having to write about your day and to keep the travel interesting. Nobody wants to read about relaxing on a beach for too long, so we find that we always have to look for the next adventure and can never sit still for an extended period. We are working towards not becoming burnt out in the future. We hope that we can find that perfect balance.
Hi guys.. thanks for stopping by!
There was a time we were considering trying to switch to making money via the blog, then we realized what all that could mean and put focus back into the software side of things. Thanks for confirming that it is indeed a tight balance to find.
While some very good blessing are involved with our ability to do what we do, luck doesn’t play too much of a role – it’s all very conscious intent and skills we’ve worked years to achieve.
We’re so excited for your upcoming Mongol Rally! Chris has aspirations to do that one day.
“actually put quite a bit of work into making it happen and continue to happen — so I wouldn’t really call it completely passive”
Hello guys,
I hope this comment isn’t to “far” from the topic. I just wish to emphasize the essence of a small part you just shared.
It is good that you included the above quoted string.
This will enlighten those who still believe in “Lazy” income. You see a lot of that term today and it’s sad that many fall into this trap. “Nothing comes out from nothing”. Earning passive income is a smart way and never a lazy way of earning income.
Thanks for clarifying the facts…
Yes indeed.. I think often folks associate passive income with lazy income.
Now I have a question Cherie! Did you two ever investigate Nevada as your domicile before chosing South Dakota? If so, why did you choose SD? Thanks!
Our driving (um… quite literally) reason for SD was their vehicle excise tax of 3%. As we had just bought a new tow vehicle that we needed to register when we were considering domicile, that made SD stand out the most for us. And it has saved us a bundle of cash, as we’ve since bought a new RV and another new tow vehicle.
SD also has a lot of support services for RVers (such as mail forwarding) and has a reputation for being nomad-friendly by exempting travelers from jury duty. They also have no vehicle inspection, so no need to return annually (unlike Texas, another popular choice).
If I recall from way back then, Nevada was good on the no-income tax status, but had some other considerations that made them not as attractive to us. I don’t recall what they were off the top of my head.
Have you guys checked out wachovia.com? I have some other ‘on the road’ friends who swear by it. I haven’t used them – but they have a good reputation.
Wachovia and Wells Fargo are two other banks that I have on my research list. I suspect we’ll end up consolidating down our Chase accounts and keep at least one for using their nifty deposit by iPhone feature. We’re also excited by BankSimple, and have been talking with their founders.. sounds like they’ll be quite nomad-friendly when they finally launch.
Thanks for the tip!
Wachovia and Wells Fargo have merged – they just switched my Wachovia account over to the Wells Fargo online banking, etc. last week. So far so good, though I think I have a special hybrid account for coming over from Wachoiva. I do avoid using that account for international ATM withdrawals, though, because the fees are pretty high.
Cool! I hope someone figures out soon that not everyone fits in a box banking-wise.
Best of luck!
And Amy – thanks for the update. Didn’t realize they had combined already. :\
Ah-hah.. well, that cuts down my research efforts. Had totally forgotten they merged like WAMU & Chase did.
And I screwed up my website as well.
I have had similar problems banking, especially when I am travelling outside countries whose currency is other than USD. The ships do provide a service for crew to exchange currency (at a small fee of course), but it takes a lot of planning ahead to make certain that you’re not stuck paying another small fee to exchange back to USD. This is usually an acceptable cost to people on vacation, but those fees add up.
Direct deposit is also available to us, but using a US-based debit card or credit card is horribly expensive in other countries. I have found that if anyone is considering cruise ships or any international travelling job, keep currency exchange and overseas banking fees in mind when you negotiate salary.
That said, I have found the cheapest route on cruise ships is partial direct deposit, and if you find yourself strapped for cash while away from the ship, a local ATM is the cheapest way to get local currency through your debit (NOT CREDIT) card.
Oops, meant to clarify: Using a US based debit card at a point-of-sale terminal is horribly expensive.
Hi Marcus .. always good to hear from our cruise ship nomad friend 🙂
We’ve heard lots of great things about zero % foreign transaction fee credit cards, such as Cap1 and British America’s Chase card… do you or any of your shipmates have any experience with those?
I’m sure we’ll be tackling this issue in the future as we embark on more international travel, and credit cards become less prevalent. Even here in the USVI we’re relying on cash much more than we’re used to.
I’m focusing on taking my current savings and putting into real estate investments (maybe the downside has been removed from the market) that will payback $0.60 on my original investment. I’m setting payoffs on the property to be 5 years with ALL proceeds going to knock down the loans.
If all goes well, my savings will be worth 5x more than now AND I’ll have ‘passive income’.
I have found 2 properties that fit this profile and believe I can find more. What do you guys think?
I wasn’t always doing this, but then the last couple of years have kicked me in the tail and I KNOW there is a better way than the stock market.
Your portable SW business sounds very cool. Good job.
Marlan
I’m probably not the best person to ask about real estate investment 🙂 I lost a bunch of cash when I was finally able to sell my house and hit the road. As far as I’m concerned, it’ll be a long long long time before I’m convinced real estate is a ‘good investment strategy’.
But .. that said.. wish you the best in your endeavors, and hope it works out.
It was a great idea to readdress some of the questions your readers have!
You guys are the first exposure my husband and I had to the digital nomad lifestyle. Never even heard of it before we StumbledUpon your site! It was from that initial discovery that led us to learning that this is a whole culture in itself and we actually felt like we found where we belong.
Now it’s just a matter of getting there! I started a blog about a month ago, as I felt that perhaps we could chronicle our transformation into a location independent couple. Our hope is to one day be as much of an inspiration to others as you, as well as others we follow, have been for us.
Thanks so much for being so forthcoming with this information! What advice would you offer to others like us who are fledgelings just spreading our wings?!
Ahh.. thanks. We’re very flattered that you continue to come back and check in on us too 🙂 And excited for your adventures ahead! We’ll definitely follow along.
As far as advice for just starting out… just do it 🙂
Great post, very informative, thanks!
We use USAA Federal Saving Bank. USAA was originally founded by military officers self-insuring one another so they know about people on the go. Plus, they keep up with technological innovations and they reimburse ATM fees. Although we seldom use ATMs now having learned WalMart anywhere across the country will give up $100 cash back on a debit card.
USAA is *awesome* and we totally love what they do for our troops and veterans, and it definitely conveys to us nomads.
Last I checked, they offered their basic checking accounts to those who don’t qualify for membership, but the account we’d want with the ‘deposit by phone’ feature was for members only. They actually pioneered that feature… so hopefully more and more banks will offer it too.
I used to say we hardly ever used ATM cards enough to worry about an occasional fee.. but living outside the US-proper, things change quite a bit.
I second the diva cup! They really do last forever and are a lot better for the environment. 🙂
And for personal banking we really like Charles Schwab – amazing customer service, no international or ATM fees, and they have pretty good investment options. Unfortunately they don’t have business accounts, though, so for that we use Bank of America… which I loathe. Still hunting for a great business checking account option…
I’ll have to look into Charles Schwab and see if it meets our needs.. thanks for the heads up. And agreed on BoA.. loathe them too and won’t ever go back. Chase was good while it lasted.. but a $5000 minimum or $15/month (for our very low number of transactions) just isn’t worth it.
Great questions and answers! It’s nice getting to know you two and what you do better. Cheers!
Heh.. well, not totally sure we do anything ‘better’, but it works for us. And that’s what matters 🙂
Great list, Cherie! My nomadic life has been mostly outside the U.S., but my experience is pretty similar on many fronts, especially with banking – as you said, it is amazing how many clients still pay by check, and it is a huge help to have my parents walk them to the bank for me like yours do! ATM fees are more of an issue when you’re out of the country, and I’ve found that using a very local bank (near my parents) is a great solution – they reimburse all of my ATM fees since they’re not tied to any large national or international banks and only have a few ATMs of their own.
I have always wondered about the Diva Cup, and one of the things holding me back from using it is the thought of being in places with less-than-ideal sanitary conditions/unsafe drinking water – I guess you’d need to use bottled water to clean it, then? I’m also curious about your non-shampoo approach, I may have to try that!
Hi Amy! Good to know we’re not the only ones still dealing with checks and recruiting parents to handle that for us. Thank goodness for people who love us 🙂
As far as the DiveCup and unsanitary conditions – I usually carried wet wipes with me to clean it as best I could and a anti-bacterial alcohol based spray or gel. Sometimes we’d be camped somewhere with pit toilets, for example, and this worked pretty well. The other awesome thing about the DivaCup is that you can sanitize them by boiling them. So would imagine that boiling unsafe drinking water for a bit, then boiling the cup could work out quite well.