The Expat Chat

Feeling jealous about your children enjoying a gap year overseas? So were Duncan and Jane Dempster-Smith until they asked the question “Why can’t we have a 12 month overseas escape too?” They failed to come up with a good reason why not, and in 2013 headed away on a 12 month sabbatical with the goal of seeing the world and living on $A185 per day – the target for what it would have cost them to have stayed at home.

Experiment over, they decided on their return that it was possible to gear themselves for a more permanent travel experience and, after a short period of housesitting, they embarked on a more permanent overseas lifestyle with the goal of living on the equivalent of the Australian pension of $A92 per day, around $US63.

Well into their experiment the Dempster-Smiths are hitting their expense goals while having a ball traveling the world. In our interview with them they talk through the process of planning, how to ask the right questions before you start and how to keep your travels to an unbelievably affordable budget

You can check out their blog and investigate how to get started on your own adventure with their handy resources at http://totraveltoo.com

What I learned from speaking with Duncan and Jane:

Turning a part time travel blog into a fulltime means of income may not be as easy as you think. For Italian Margherita Rag and Australian partner Nik Burns the decision to start fulltime travel wasn’t a hard one.

The two met in London and started their travel adventures in 2009, initially living off savings. They developed their blog which initially had a short hiatus but have committed to using it as a regular source of income in the last 12 months.

In this interview Nik and Margherita talk about their adventures in Europe, their experience in Iran, and offer some great advice on how to develop and monetize a successful travel blog.

You can check them out at http://www.thecrowdedplanet.com

What I learned from Nik and Margherita’s interview:

Iran should be on your bucket list! Far from being dangerous it had some of the most welcoming people that they had encountered on their travels

You never know where a chance meeting can take you. A train ride to London saw Alice Nettleingham sitting beside a girl who had just come back from teaching English in India. Alice’s life in the English National Health Service wasn’t unhappy but she felt there was more. Inspired by her talk Alice decided to venture out and explore the world and three months later found herself in South Korea.

She has since explored much of Asia, falling in love with the region and its people. She will traditionally spend a good period of time in each place she visits getting to know it properly, and never quite knows where her next adventure will take her.

We caught up with Alice in Taiwan where she has been for the last month. You can check out her blog at   http://teacaketravels.com

What I learned from Alice’s Interview:

Taiwan is very affordable. I had assumed as an economic power that it might be on a similar costing to places like Japan but transportation and meals are very cheap there

Today in our first ever on-location interview we caught up with Daniel Chen, an expat American and Steve Struyck a retired Dutchman who have both made the move to Penang, Malaysia. In this interview Daniel and Steven share their experiences of Penang, why they love living in Malaysia, and the cost of living they have in this country.

It was great to do our own research into expat living while we were here. Accommodation is very affordable, with an average 2 -3 bedroom apartment going for around $400-$600 US per month. Food is extremely cheap, especially if you enjoy the local street markets and Penang itself is an interesting combination of cultures with Malay, Chinese and Indian all being integral to the community – and an ever growing number of Western expats flavoring the mix.

Let’s let Daniel and Steven share their views:

What I learned from Daniel and Steven:

Was he the world’s first digital nomad? Maybe, maybe not... but there is little doubt that James Clark was one of the first people to make an online living while traveling.

The Melbourne native took to the road fulltime in 2003 while earning an income from his website business and he hasn’t stopped moving since. Currently based in Vietnam he spends much of the year traveling between various hubs catching up with online colleagues. James has built his business to now include travel blogging and helping others start their own online travel business.

We caught up with James on the move in Singapore where we discussed his early beginnings, life in Vietnam and where he sees the opportunities ahead for people wanting to do what he does.

You can catch James blog at http://www.nomadicnotes.com

What I learned from speaking with James:

Thanks to the growth of the internet more and more people are enjoying the opportunity to work from wherever they wish, anytime they wish. It is the biggest change in our working environment since the industrial revolution created the growth of cities. It provides freedom on a level our ancestors would struggle to comprehend. It’s creating the perfect cloud based nirvana for those wishing to travel.

But even a digital nomad sometimes needs an oasis in the desert.

Traveling the world making money online can be a lonely business – at times you wish you had somewhere to go where you could have internet that works and a place to relax with like-minded online entrepreneurs. Hubud is exactly that.

Founded in 2012 Hubud is a collaborative space established in Bali (hence its name; a mixture of Hub and Ubud). It provides a relaxing environment with work space for numerous online advocates, along with meeting rooms and regular seminars designed to provide you with the latest in technical knowledge.

We met up with Hubud co –founder Steve Munroe on Skype to discuss the future of international working hubs, Bali generally and how Hubud provides Knowmads as Steve calls them, with more than just a working environment.

You can find out more about Hubud at http://www.hubud.org and their education programs at http://turnpoint.io

What I learned from Steve’s interview:

Sometimes circumstances outside of your control can be the catalyst to finally make the step to becoming an expat.

For Ron Perry the 2008 economic crisis forced him to downsize his web design business and think about how he could run his operations while being location independent. Influenced by The Four Hour Workweek Ron made a conscious choice to reorganize his life and in 2010 he headed abroad setting up shop in Chiang Mai Thailand.

In this interview he talks about the challenges of setting up a bricks and mortar bar in Chiang Mai, the online tools that have helped him build his web design business https://egnite.biz/  to being 10 times bigger than it was before he left and the excitement he gets from living in his new location of Tel Aviv, Israel – and why it’s not as dangerous as most people think.

What I learned from Ron’s interview:

Some business headaches were the catalyst for Tom Bartel and Kristin Henning decision to leave their Minnesota home and start traveling the world in 2010. Their publishing business had met some resistance with the global financial crisis and the couple decided it was the perfect opportunity to put their plans for a location independent lifestyle into gear.

5 years on the couple have now seen much of the world and have no intentions of slowing down anytime soon. We caught up with them visiting family at Lake Tahoe during one of their return trips to the US.

They show age is no barrier to travel! You can follow their journey at https://travelpast50.com

What I learned from speaking with Tom and Kris:

 It took Brendan Lee around 72 hours as a chartered accountant to realize that it wasn’t the career for him. But leaving wasn’t easy – he was on a committed tenure that meant he had 4 years to work – and what about his degree? 4 years of his life looked like going up in smoke, plus the additional time he had to spend working it off.

It would have been enough to worry most people but Brendan had a goal – travel. He knuckled down, paid off most of his student debt, worked out his tenure saving 50% of his salary along the way – and in 2010 embarked on a travel journey that doesn’t look like ending.

His travels have taken him through China, Asia, South America, Africa and parts of Europe – spending 8 months or so of each year overseas with 4 months back in his home country New Zealand.

We caught up with him in Zanzibar where we discussed the affordability of travel; why more people don’t do what he does, and why the current education system doesn’t provide people with the skills they need for the new global world in which we live.

This interview is a little longer than most but worth every minute. You can follow Brendan at http://www.brenontheroad.com where his new book is due for release shortly

What I learned from Brendan:

 The Middle East can seem a scary place – and not the ideal location for a single British woman to be heading to. For Amanda Settle spending more time in the British education system as a teacher wasn’t going to provide her with the fulfillment she was after. Feeling disillusioned she took a teaching position at an international school in Kuwait.

Since then she has worked in Qatar and Dubai, meeting her husband along the way. Amanda has now taken a break from teaching and relocated to the Greek island of Rhodes very close to the mainland of Turkey where she is enjoying the slow pace of village life.

Amanda joins us to talk about her experiences as a single woman in the Middle East and how she is enjoying the slower pace of life living in Greece.

Catch up with her at http://www.amandasettle.com

What I learned from Amanda: