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[Interview #023] From overcoming fears to taking control of his life – How 4 years of solo world travel and volunteering can change everything!

Travis King is a 37 years old, originally from Milwaukee Wisconsin. He spent the first 10 years of his career working with youth as a camp director.

As that two-year program was finishing and everyone was questioning his next professional pursuit, he thought to himself, “when do I ever get to make a choice for myself, for my life, and not for my resume?”.

That thought led him on a 5-month trip to South America as soon as his Master’s finished. He went on to solo travel and volunteer all over the world for 4 years. Those four years ended with landing a job in the travel industry as one of Remote Year’s first program leaders. A few years later he is now officially unemployed (by choice), living in Puerto Escondido, Mexico.

Let’s dig into his story!

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

[Interview #022] From normal life in Florida to full-time world travelers in about 8 months: How to harness the power of working remotely and start traveling the world

In this interview you will learn how Amy and Ian became full time world travelers in 8 months and harness the power of working remotely to live their best life yet! You will learn what does a typical day in their life look like for them today vs before, the few inflection points led them to decide to change their life trajectory, what were some of the limiting beliefs that hold them back and so much more!

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals on our favorite essential items (2020 Edition)

As aspiring minimalists, we don’t extensively buy stuff and rather focus on experiences. However, we are savers that can’t pass on a good deal especially for an essential item we needed to buy anyway. This makes Black Friday sales the perfect time to make these thoughtful purchases as they are usually heavily discounted. The key here obviously is “essential item”.

Since everyone will likely be looking at deals online (especially in 2020 – a big year for online deliveries), we decided to put together a list of our favorite slow travel essentials items that we have found discounted as part of the 2020 Black Friday season.

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals on our Travel Essentials (2019 Edition)

As aspiring minimalists, we don’t extensively buy stuff and rather focus on experiences. Our ‘deals’ lately have looked like $1.50 Pad Thai, a $5/hour massage and a free swim in perfect blue ocean waters. However, we are savers that love a good deal and if there is an essential we needed to buy anyways, Black Friday sales are a good time to make that thoughtful purchase.

In case you were planning on purchasing items we’ve mentioned in our packing list posts in the past, we’ve pulled together a list of items that are currently discounted during Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Traveling with Purpose

Whether it is for a short 2 weeks vacation, a 3-6 months sabbatical from the office or even if travel has become your lifestyle, there is no shortage of beautiful places in the world to visit. Most of the time people will pick a destination because it is “trendy” or because one of their friends recommended it to them. Very few people will actually ask themselves what they want out of a travel experience before picking the destination after some introspection.

In other words, we rarely start with “our why” we want to travel but rather focus merely on the “what” or the “how” expecting the magic to happen once on site (check out this great book from Simon Sinek to get more insights on this topic).

This lack of self examination can lead to dissatisfaction in many areas of life. Like going to college, getting married, buying a house or even having kids without asking ourselves first and foremost if these are things we really need to live a truly fulfilled life. 

In this article, we will explore why it is important to travel with purpose and provide some ideas to get you started. If you’re seeking some inspiration and want to go beyond checking off a travel itinerary, this post is for you!

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Year 1 Nomad Travel Spend Report – Traveling the world for half of the cost of staying home

When we decided to get married and sell everything to travel the world, we knew that this new lifestyle was going to be fun, exciting but also cheaper than staying at home. What we did not know was how much cheaper it was going to be to live a very high quality of life where we would enjoy the local food scene, cook amazing meals, take regular getaway trips, spend time in nature, attend local shows/festivals and everything else you get the freedom to do when you decide to travel the world slowly.

As we are closing our first year of nomadic travel, I am digging into our finances to answer this question and the results are pretty exciting. In a nutshell in the last 12 months, we slow traveled to 10 locations in 5 countries for about half the cost of living in San Francisco. But more than reducing our spending, geo-arbitrage let us rebalance our expenses towards activities that we enjoy the most, spending more time with our respective families, living a less stressful life and exploring new places in the world.

So let’s dig into our spending report for our first year of nomadic living!

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

International phone plan options for travel – Google FI Review

As we embarked on long-term nomadic travel, we had to figure out a lot of logistics and choosing an international phone plan is a big one because we rely on it everyday. We ultimately decided on Google FI and will share with you our comprehensive review of the Google FI phone plan.

We will be going over the reason why we believe it is critical to have connectivity while traveling long term, why we chose Google FI has the phone plan we’ve been using since we started our journey, what are the alternatives and which option we recommend whether you want to travel the world long-term or simply stay in the US.

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By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago

Detailed Guide + Cost of living in Aruba: Nomads in Paradise

Staying for a month in paradise on a Caribbean island costs tens of thousands of dollars right? We assumed it can only be affordable for 5 days or 10 days max unless you are a gazillionaire and it’s probably only worth it for a special occasion like a honeymoon. We never heard of any digital nomads or slow travelers going there, so it must not be practical. Well we have some good news for you, it is very doable and can be cheaper than staying at home! Are you ready to go explore Aruba?

By Mr. Nomad Numbers, ago