Devin’s article intrigued me so much that I reached out to Featured.com and LinkedIn to see what different financial experts and business owners thought about this question. Devlin himself concluded that “with the proper strategy it is entirely possible to maintain financial independence while traveling.”
Certainly, my own experience is that regular travel is fairly consistent for at least semi-retirement. In fact, you’ll notice that Devin’s blog includes some photos of Ruth and I that were taken in Malta and Italy, which try to illustrate the idea of combining business with pleasure.
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Few would dispute that a full traditional retirement is perfectly compatible with extensive travel; This seems to be the dream of those who are still employed full-time in the workforce. But increasingly, the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement and/or semi-retirement or early retirement can also be compatible with working at least part-time, often some of it while on the road.
Hence the word “digital nomad,” for those whose dual careers can allow travel and work when a laptop and Internet connection are available. Of course, running a financial website like mine, and writing an occasional column like the one you’re reading, can be done from almost anywhere.
Our family’s routine of spending six weeks abroad each winter (usually in a different place each time) was improved after a similar trip to Málaga, Spain, in late 2022. We repeated that experience last year in the Bahamas and this year, as mentioned, in Malta. In all cases, we commit to spending at least a month in one location on Airbnb; Rates are lower when you do this. We look for elevator access and modern appliances like dishwasher, microwave, washer and dryer, as well as common kitchen appliances like toaster and coffee maker.
As we explain to friends astonished by our choice to live long periods of time in a small place, our routine abroad is not all that different from what we do in Canada: we love to walk near a body of water every day (at home it’s Lake Ontario), and we try to eat most of our meals at home. Typically, we find a farmers market and/or convenience store that is a short walking distance from our temporary home.
As a result, our monthly food expenses are not much higher than those at home, although one may spend a little more money on restaurants.
Internet facilitates digital nomads
Clearly, the Internet is essential to the digital nomad lifestyle. For us, the key applications besides Airbnb are Netflix and YouTube – the latter is useful for getting local travel advice from semi-professional travel bloggers, as well as providing music and even a limited amount of news. We don’t rent a car, preferring buses and trains, but if we did, there’s no doubt we would rely on mobile apps like Waze or Google Maps.
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By the deadline of the featured article, I had received 84 submissions from a variety of financial professionals, travel experts and business owners: too many submissions to summarize in this brief column. Sadly, even long position of my websiteI had to limit it to about 25 responses. The vast majority agreed with DeWine’s initial premise that travel is indeed compatible with financial independence. as Rex Freiburger Kibble Facts Put it this way, “Defining travel as a threat to financial freedom is a myth built mostly around the most expensive version of travel.”
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Travel doesn’t have to be expensive, Joshua Wahls agrees insurance by heroes: “Business-class flights, five-star hotels and $40 cocktails at the pool bar are optional. A $500 round-trip flight and a $60-per-night Airbnb in a country where your dollar goes for three times as much is still travel.”
Some “have your cake and eat it too” ideas include renting a recreational vehicle (RV) for longer trips and making your home a maintenance-free travel community, essentially facilitating a “lock and leave” approach to foreign travel.
I also discovered a new word that I had not encountered in my previous studies or travels: blazer, which is a contraction of business and leisure. Wikipedia defines blazer “The practice of combining business travel with leisure activities, usually by extending the business trip to include personal time.” Main idea, says Jay Allenby safe harborLetting your carrier fund your transit: “We often help clients integrate vacation days into business trips to eliminate individual airfare and accommodation costs.”
geo arbitrage
Several sources have mentioned the concept of geoarbitrage, which means living where the cost of living is more affordable. Devin Partida first discovered it guest blog. This, in turn, allows you to grow your investment portfolio, as Jay Samit points out in his book second act advantage. “By earning in stronger currencies while living and exploring more affordable parts of the world, everyone can actually enjoy a richer, more adventurous life while spending less,” he says.
The key is transitioning from holidays to geoarbitrage, writes James Tech tripfrog. “A strategic traveler focused on FI (financial independence) prioritizes medium-term stays in regions where the cost of living is lower than their home base. By spending months in hubs such as Portugal, Mexico or Southeast Asia, you can often live a high-quality lifestyle for up to 40% less than major Western cities. In this model, travel actually accelerates your path to financial independence by reducing your monthly spending rate.”
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A newer suggestion is to make travel a regular fixed expense that you plan to afford every month, rather than treating it as an item paid for with ‘loose change’ after all other ‘essential’ expenses have been paid. To me, this evokes the old advice rich barber Author David Chilton recommends “pay yourself first” by allocating a set percentage of your paycheck to savings.
Achieving financial freedom doesn’t require the asceticism of a monk, says Scott Brown, founder of mintwit. “The trick is moving away from expensive, quick trips to planned travel that helps you achieve your FI goals… What we tell people instead is slow travel, staying home, credit-card point travel hacking and pursuing off-season destinations: not cutting out travel altogether.”