Tag Archives: travel

by | November 25, 2013 · 11:21 am

Preparing for the Breakaway: Crossing the Atlantic Ocean

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One of the biggest challenges in preparing to breakaway is hearing others opinions of what you should do. When I decided it was time to breakaway I had just graduated from university and I had been discussing traveling abroad for a while. Luckily I was at the right point in my life where I had no real responsibility yet, other then some college loans I was able to pay off. My biggest challenge in this adventure though was convincing my parents to let me do it. It took a lot of effort to persuade them that this was the right time in my life for me to go and live my dreams and finally after weeks of hostile chats and some disappoints they finally relented.

After they were onboard the rest of my plans were smooth sailing. I knew that I was to move to Amsterdam so I tirelessly researched living and working there. Luckily since I am a Dual Citizen of Italy and the United States I did not need to apply for a working visa for Europe. Packing my belongings to go aboard was a marathon, not a sprint. I had to box up everything I would be leaving in the United States and move it into storage. Packing what I would be bringing with me was also quite difficult, not knowing what I should bring or leave here. I mean how are you mean to know how the weather will be the entire length of your trip or what other trips you may take while your away? I didn’t want to have to buy something while I was away that I knew I had at home, I’m cheap I know this.

The other biggest challenge is deciding how long you’ll actually be gone for, do you want to leave forever or just for a couple years until you find yourself? At first I decided I was only going to gone a year but that year turned into an indefinite period. It has been one of the best decisions of my life, at times it can be difficult especially around the holidays but I have a new family of amazing friends to keep me company. Leaving home is one of the biggest decisions you can make but once you make the choice the rest falls into place.

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by | November 22, 2013 · 11:06 pm

Creating the Perfect Exit: Leaving Your Job (If You Must)

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Iguazú Falls, Argentina

In my post Creating the Perfect Exit: Preparing, I talked about the importance of getting ready for making a big move. Once you are prepared, the next step is to either leave your work permanently or propose a way you can have more freedom but still work for the same company. As a nurse, there are several options for working remotely if you work with a travel nurse agency that sends you to locations for only short contracts. When I decided I wanted a change, however, I was a long term employee of the hospital I worked for making it difficult to find remote work options. When I decided to make my big move, I had been working for the same hospital for four years, and I wanted a break or a change, but I wasn’t sure if I officially wanted to leave my job yet. I also wasn’t sure if I still wanted to be a nurse. Here are a few of the options I explored which apply not only to nursing, but other jobs as well. Eventually, I decided to quit my job, but it is always good to explore your options first before severing your main source of income.

Ask for a leave of absence: I had been working as a nurse for about three years when I first asked for a three month leave of absence to travel. My leave of absence was not accepted, but I know several people who have done it successfully. Depending on where you live, people can usually take anywhere from three to six months off but still have a job waiting for them when they return. This is a nice option if you need something a little more stable and enjoy the work you are already doing. If you have vacation pay, you can use this usually during your leave of absence to provide you some income even though you are not working.

Look forward to layoffs and voluntary separations: In the current economy, people cringe when they hear the word layoff, but getting laid off might just be your ticket to freedom. Several countries provide aid to those who have been laid off while they search for a new job. Apply for the appropriate programs if you can apply to receive aid and travel while you search for your new dream job. I took a voluntary separation from my work which means that my job asked people to voluntarily quit in exchange for a chunk of money. The benefit of a voluntary separation for a business is that they can avoid the dirty word “layoff” while still getting rid of people and trimming the budget. For me, the chunk of money I was given was just what I needed to get started on my travels.

Retire early: After four years of working and investing 3% of my pay check into a retirement account, I decided to take all that money out and invest it on living the life I wanted to right now. I used the money to pay off the remainder of my loan debt and to travel the world for a year without working. I have met too many people who waited to explore the world until retirement only to have grandchildren to care for, cancer to treat, and foreclosures on their home. I know few people who by the time they retired had the time, money, or health to go on that after retirement trip around the world. Retirement accounts are good to have while you are working at a place for a long time, and I recommend investing in one, but don’t feel obligated to keep an account until you are too old to enjoy it. You will be penalized for taking the money out early, but there are ways around additional fees for the early withdrawal such as removing the money the next year so it does not count towards your overall income of the previous year when you do taxes. Also, you can often take loans out from your own retirement account up to half the amount of your total investment. Of course these things will vary from one retirement account to another, but just make sure to ask about your options. If you take out a loan from your retirement account, you will have to pay monthly payments and interest. However, these are monthly payments and interest to yourself, not to a bank or the government, and there are no penalties as long as you repay the loan by the designated time. In the end, you won’t loose money, you will gain money, and you can fund a retirement lifestyle right now instead of waiting for a far-off date.

Written by: Beth Ann Nyssen

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by | November 17, 2013 · 4:03 am

Breaking Free: The Turning Point

A beautiful day on the canals

It only takes one moment or one experience for you to decided to turn your life around. For me that experience was actually the three months I spent living in Greece.

Don’t get me wrong my life was pretty good to begin with, I was born a Dual Citizen of the United States and Italy, my parents chose to raise me and my sister in the U.S. but we still enjoyed frequent trips to Europe to visit family. I mean it’s pretty fantastic to be able to say that while my friends spent their summers at day camps or in Florida I was off enjoying the sunny Mediterranean. Still something was missing, I had traveled to Italy countless times but I had never fully felt like I had traveled so in my junior year at university I made a decision that effectively changed the rest of life (dramatic I know, but true).

Since I was young I had been in love with ancient Greek and Roman mythology and I always knew I one day would want to visit Greece. So that was it, Greece was the perfect place to make my escape to. I set about applying to countless jobs, my parents were supportive but hesitant in my plan. The constant ït’s okay if you need to come home early” made me feel like they didn’t believe that I could make it happen for myself, but I did and boy was it the best decision of my life.

That trip was my turning point, I met so many people who were not only my age, 21 at the time, but younger who had been traveling for years. They all had amazing stories of venturing to Thailand, India, Spain really everywhere and anywhere you could imagine. I knew that when I returned to university that fall my life would be forever different, I had caught the bug and I was completely and overwhelmingly infected. Much to my parents dismay I made the choice to take a year off after finishing my degree. Two months after my graduation I was off, I spent three months living in Rome and then moved to Amsterdam, where I have been happily situated for over a year (so much for only taking a year off).

The decision to move abroad is similar to bungee jumping or skydiving, you know want to do it because of the thrill and the rush of adrenaline that await you but there are so many things that could wrong people often never take the jump.

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by | November 11, 2013 · 1:15 am

Rules are for Breaking

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Versailles, France

The biggest mistake you can make is to tell yourself you have to do everything by the rules. Doing things by the rules is more expensive, time consuming, and just damn boring. So learn that rules are for breaking.

I am privileged. I am from the United States. Unlike most people in the world, I can travel pretty much anywhere I want. I can cross borders as easily as I can slice through a stick with a machete. I did not fully understand this until I came to Honduras, which is the size of some states in America. Hondurans need a visa most everywhere in the world, even to take a vacation in countries that are close to them. I understand why so many of them feel trapped within this small country. However, I still think that where there is a will there is a way. I have met several people, especially through Couchsurfing, people from places like China, who do not have a free access pass to the world. They have to apply; they have to pay; they have to beg to go to a different country, but they do it because it is important to them. If these people can travel the world so can you, and if you say otherwise, especially if you are American, then you have created your own doom.

There are many obstacles I overcame to get to the freedom I have now, but mostly they were obstacles I set up for myself. In following all the rules that were supposed to help me get to my end goal of traveling the world, I, in many ways, could not see the many different options available. I could only see the ones that fit within the system of socially acceptable pathways for travel such as set vacation times, study abroad programs, or working for oversees organizations. I could not see options like working for a year in your home country then taking a year off traveling, volunteering abroad so you can travel with free room and board, being a freelance writer online so you can go anywhere but still work, Couchsurfing for cheap travel and cultural exchange, or asking for a leave of absence so you still have a job to come back to.

I could not have broken away from the system of rules if not for the people who inspired me to do so by their own real life examples. I would say I first began to think outside the box when a friend, who was also a nurse, told the hospital she worked for that she wanted a leave of absence to travel for three months, and that they could either let her have it or she would quit. She was the first inspiration, but there were others. A Couchsurfer from the UK had also done something similar but in a different job and had been traveling for months in the USA.

Then I had a Couchsurfer live with me who totally turned my world upside down. I had broken up with my boyfriend, and I needed help with rent, so I put up an add in Couchsurfing for someone to pay to stay on my couch long term as a flat-mate. The girl who came broke every rule in the book. She had never been to college, but she was one of the most intelligent people I had met, choosing to learn through reading instead of paying for an education. She, unlike most people her age, was debt free. She would work and save for a year as a nanny then travel the world until her money ran out. She volunteered at a food shelter which often had too much food, so the shelter would give her the leftovers to take home to eat. She rarely had to pay for food herself. She loved to dance and would go out most nights, but she knew all the times when she could dance for free. If she went out with friends to a restaurant, she would not order anything, or if she did, it was tea or a small drink. When there was a free event in town, she would go. Her eyes were on the prize, traveling, and nothing was going to distract her, but she made sure to have affordable fun while waiting for the end reward. She was my biggest inspiration. Because of her I realized that any dream was possible. It was really only about how much you were willing to give up to fulfill it, and I discovered that I could give up a lot quite happily to find my freedom. Within a year of careful planning and positive thinking, I had my reward.

Written by Beth Ann Nyssen

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by | November 8, 2013 · 8:12 am

Turning my life upside down

Deck chairs by the beach. Perfect office space.

Southern Thailand, I can’t imagine a more beautiful office space…

A roller coaster. The most adequate description of my life over the last four years. My decision to break free and take control of my destiny came as a result of a series of unexpected events, that led me from Australia, to Thailand, to Denmark, and back again to Thailand.

The first step is to begin at the beginning, and in the beginning there is always a girl. We met in a company training session in Copenhagen, and fell head-over-heels for each other. The flight back to Sydney was terrible, I knew where I wanted to be, and who I wanted to be with. Unfortunately for my parents, this was not in Australia! Two months later, with a freshly signed expatriation contract, I boarded a plane to her hometown of Bangkok. This first shift was painless. As an expat, your hand is held through every difficult moment associated with an international relocation. Visa, work permits, and even your belongings are taken care of, one day you just wake up realizing you are indeed quite far from home.

The second shift reflected another opportunity. To Copenhagen with us both on expatriation; tackling exciting projects, our life was surreal. However crunch time always hits, hitting hardest in the midst of the financial crisis. I found myself alone in Denmark after her contract was terminated, and 30% of our workforce had been made redundant. Looking to my colleagues, I realized that experience, ability, and skills counted for little. People whose life had been this company, counted for naught. My friends who had invested their entire careers in this business were now out of a job, out of options.

It was this point that was critical for me. During yet another round of farewell beers, I decided that I never wanted to be trapped in that position. I never wanted to give another person the ability to influence my life to such a degree. I never wanted to rely on anyone but myself. My financial future, my life, and ultimately my happiness needed to be under my control.

Handing in my resignation sealed my fate. I threw in the towel with the company that had trained me, where I had grown from an entry-level trainee to management, and built my career over the course of six years. It was not a decision made lightly, and my advice for anyone considering a digital nomad lifestyle is twofold. Have a back-up plan in place, and have some money behind you. Your savings will ensure you can put food on the table, and a back-up plan provides peace of mind during the transition. I had savings that could fund my life in Bangkok for 12 months, 18 at a stretch if my earnings were zero. This provided peace of mind to myself, as well as my family, who at this point were thinking that their son had lost the plot. I also talked in detail with my previous managers in Thailand, and had received an open invitation to return to my previous job. This greatly reduced the risk that involved, making it much easier to take my first leap.

Selling 99% of my belongings was a freeing experience, it opened my eyes to the materialism that is mind-numbingly forced down our throats in modern society. The scary part, is that most of us never even realize. My 20 kg baggage allowance on the return flight to Thailand did not leave room for sentiment, and I was brutal. I moved to Copenhagen with a twenty-foot container jammed full of my life, almost a ton of accumulated “stuff” that I had given value to. I returned with a suitcase.  

Touching down in the heat of Bangkok, I had no idea on my next steps. No plan, no 5-step guide.

I was definitely in the deep end, but I had never felt more alive.

Author: Travis Bennett

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by | November 8, 2013 · 5:04 am

My Decision to Go Remote – From Portland to Honduras

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Hacienda Grande, Copán, Honduras

Someone once told me children know with great accuracy what they want to do as adults at 6 years old. The media and social pressures are what make you forget. As adults, most of us are trapped by a mold designed by our personal expectations and those of others. I broke out of that mold about two years ago when I realized the only person keeping me from my dreams was myself.

I was on the right track for the American Dream: Educated, working full time in a well-paying job, with a spacious city apartment, and a steady boyfriend. At the back of my mind though, in the bottom of my heart, there was a dream of a 6 year old girl to live a simple life riding around the world on a donkey. As a child, I saw myself traveling with a mission to love others and share and learn from them. Even then, I could see how America’s consumeristic society kept us working instead of living, and I did not want to be a part of it. However, at 25, I came to the upsetting realization that I too had fallen into the consumerist trap. Advertisers had brilliantly distorted the American Dream concept to lure me and others in.

I was working with cancer patients as a nurse in the United States and hosting people from Couchsurfing, a website where wanderers can host or stay with fellow travelers to learn and explore the world more openly, when I had my Aha! moment. My cancer patients taught me it was the relationships, the interactions, the learning and loving that made life important. They helped me remember my childhood dream. Couchsurfers gave me the hope that my dream was possible. People from all over the world came to my home telling me their adventures, living on the cheap. They inspired me to see the world with new eyes.

The decision to leave my job and my beautiful apartment in downtown Portland at first seemed daunting because they were what I knew and the unknown seemed terrifying. As I got rid of each item in my apartment over the course of a year, I felt more free, and I realized these things were what were tying me down all along. The desire to collect them, to store them, to own them, and the same went for people. Letting things go, I realized that letting people go often is what gives you and those you release the power to fly. Once you are free, anything is possible.

Written by Beth Ann Nyssen

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