Travel Pro Tip #28: How to Live Travel Pro! Inspired by @jedau. Part Two, Work for Your Money or Have Your Money Work for You!
In part one of this series we talked about the importance of getting ahead financially to have a freer life. We touched on some ways to make that happen and the importance of making that happen so you can be free to "Live Travel Pro!"
In this part we'll go into further detail about how you can get your money working for you and alternatives to having an income straight from a large lump sum investment. We'll cover how much money you really need to live Travel Pro. We'll talk about what it means to be a digital nomad and what it means to be a Travel Pro! We'll talk about how to make it happen for you!
What are some other ways to get your money working for you safely?
This really depends on where you are and what your country of residence has to offer. I'll first explain an entire huge asset class that you can't rely on. Any investment where you only make money if "it" goes up or down. You need a steady, reliable income if you're going to Live Travel Pro!
So with this in mind stocks, bonds, random currencies, bit-coin, cryptos, exchange traded funds (ETFs); even if you are 100% certain they are going to go up in value the reality is that you nor anyone has a crystal ball. So I would consider all these speculative investments that can be played with; just not to solidify a secure Travel Pro Life. These are the investments that very well could make you a millionaire, but they could also make you broke.
The best and most secure investment I can think of is lost in time in the 1970's in the United States. That would be a simple insured savings account. Interest rates were around 8% for most of that decade. So if you put 100,000 dollar in the bank, every year (12 month cycle) you would earn about 10,000 dollars insured on that money and that's in 1970s money!
Why am I saying this when it no longer exists? Well it actually does exist in certain countries around the world. Ecuador being one of them. This is where I have a nice chunk of money earning me more than 9% insured. But there are some strings attached if you are not Ecuadorian, there is a visa and residency process to get involved with. They use the USD dollar in this country so there is no risk of holding another currency which is often more volatile. So this is one option for those willing to do so.
Other than that for most citizens of western countries you really have no safe and insured place to get a good secure return on investment. Since interest rates are around zero offering no return on your money, it's forced almost everyone into the stock markets around the world, which is a speculative and highly risky place to be at these valuations. If you got in back in 2009-2014 I'd surely be taking profits here.
Unfortunately we no longer have 1970's insured interest rates in the western world and the reality is there is no safe place to get a safe ROI on your investment now. So I really don't have the answer. What I'd probably do if you can't just commit to living in Ecuador for a while nor want to, is go to rental income. That is probably your best bet at this point. For secure and steady income.
However that can come with a bunch of headaches and risks too. Everything from poor management, to lousy tenants to your building burning down or just needing some serious repairs! One thing is for sure, if you want to live Travel Pro you have to get a solid income through investment without eating into your savings. Once you start eating away at your savings, you'll find yourself back at square one before you even know it.
How much income do you need to Live Travel Pro?
Well, again this depends on how well you are at the other aspects of Living Travel Pro that we will discuss later. As a general rule, I'd say you'd want no less than 750 dollars a month income. Obviously the more the better, but I've Lived Travel Pro on as little as 500, even less when I had to. However the less money you have, the less fun you'll have, the less travel options you'll have, and quite frankly the less you'll even really want to live Travel Pro.
Do I need to have investment income? What about another source of income?
Absolutely you can live Travel Pro from another source of Income. If you can make money from your computer you can basically Live Travel Pro! But, you'll be much more like a Digital Nomad rather than a Travel Pro. Quite frankly for the past few months, this is what I've become. The more time I spend on Steemit blogging the less Travel Pro I feel. I feel much more like a guy that just goes to different places stays there for weeks at a time and spends all day working on his computer. It's actually very Un-Travel Pro and very digital nomad. A title that I never ever liked or thought of myself as.
Living Travel Pro is all about having free time to do what you want and seeing the world. But if you are busy computer programming, blogging, consulting, teaching English or whatever it is you do from your computer 40 hours a week then you mine as well just stay in one location and not even travel.
Now that being said. Getting this 1,000 dollar a month steady income from investment is often easier said than done. I don't get a full guaranteed 1,000 a month from investments. I get about 75% of that. I make up the rest from teaching English through skype for about 3 hours a week, and now through my efforts on steemit I'm earning much more. Earning money through your own talents builds self esteem and the feeling of productivity but if it turns into a full time job; then that is exactly what you have and are no longer living Travel Pro.
This is totally my current problem. I started on steemit maybe putting two hours a day into it as a hobby. If I didn't go on for a day it was a non issue. It was just for fun. I wasn't making any money anyway. However in the past few months my followers have tripled, the currency price has gone up hundreds of percent, and I'm suddenly making more money than I dreamed of from blogging about my life. Two hours a day has now turned into, often ten hours a day! I'm no longer very Travel Pro! I'm somewhat frustrated about this while simultaneously I couldn't be happier about my success here.
So my plan is to work really hard and backlog a bunch of blog posts, then get back to my Travel Pro Life. Which I'm successfully doing. Then find a good balance of blogging and living how I enjoy. One thing is for sure I can't be Steemit's World Travel Pro if I'm just sitting in a hotel all day writing. So we'll end this article now so I can soon get back to being a Travel Pro! Until next time. "-Dan World Travel Pro!"
With over 11 years of travel experience I answer travel and international lifestyle questions. Leave a question in the comments and I may make a Steemit post just for you!
interesting Post, thank for sharing. My life as a traveller has just began.
I already upvote my friend yes
Thank you! Best of luck to you!
this comrade is a handsome and handsome boy yes, i like to post friends
Thank you as always!
this is a really good post Dan, I missed upvoting it in time, sorry about that. It's interesting that even with a nomadic life, you face similar challenges on steemit as the rest of us stationary folks on steemit. It has a powerful draw and we all want to give a lot to it yet also have to balance it with life and the refuel the sources of our content!
Enjoyed this post a lot and am glad that you're finding your balance. It's hit and miss with me, some weeks I have it, others not so much ;-)
Thank Ruth! Yes no mater where you are steemit offers challenges to us all. Another issue I'm having is since I'm traveling so much I experience so much and I have so much to post about. Just in the last 25 hrs I documented my trip from Lima to Cusco, then the hotel I got in Cusco, then this morning Plaza de Armas and a little tour around Cusco, and now I'm at this great cafe that I could turn into a post too! So now that I'm doing more videos and I'm actually considering posting 3 times a day....but I'm on the fence about that. We'll see.
I imagine that there IS so much material you could post about!! My 2 cents is to keep it simple and awesome. you know my stance - edit things down to what's essential. quality over quantity and keep your readers/watchers wanting more. I know that I can't possibly read even 2 posts from one blogger everyday given the number of people I'm trying to support.
Certainly gives me something to think about. I'm just always visiting new and exciting places, I think I need to hire and editor! lol If you get to one of my posts a week, I'd be more than happy. Steemit can occupy a person's entire day if you let it.....and I think I have on more than one occasion! ;)
Great post! Improve your posts payout reading
If you think about fiat money and how it is not bound to any real value any more but printed willingly by central banks, it seems that money is pretty much an illusion to keep the masses working as small, insignificant wheels in the giant machine we call economy.. Most people I know never question this system and live their life as society tells them to: Study, work, spend all the money you earn on insignificant things, work more, die. They don't realize how easy it is to break out of the Matrix and achieve real freedom.
I can neither see myself working in an office all day nor working as a digital nomad 8 hours a day, five days a week because I have to earn money. But what I love to do is do projects. After I had been travelling for 8 months, I felt the urge to sit down in a hostel for a few days and do some web development. I then started to take a few hours once in a while to submit my photos to stockphoto agencies which now provides me with a nice passive income of about 150$ a month.
I have comfortably lived of less than 500$ a month in some countries and earning this amount of money partly by working as some kind of digital nomad only on projects that are interesting to me (like Steemit!) and partly as a passive income from photo sales and investments seems quite possible and is what I will do once I finish university.
Right now it is very hard to find objects to invest in for a reliable passive income. With the low interest rates, the mass of money pouring into ETFs has artificially lifted the value of many stocks; real estate has gone up insanely in Germany in the past years and cryptos are a huge speculation - undervalued regarding their potential, but massively overvalued regarding their current use cases. Precious metals are a store of value with the potential to go up in value in times of an economic crisis, but lack any kind of interest.
Btw, do you realize that holding Steem Power pays a LOT of interest? If one would just hold SP and sell delegations or upvotes (+curation rewards), the Steem investment would increase by over 30% in a year. The price of Steem in USD can fluctuate of course, but it could very well go up significantly..
9% interest on USD is pretty insane nowadays.. Do you know how the Ecuadorian banks manage to pay this much interest? Since there is no Ecuadorian Central Bank, they cannot just print money, but they get it from the US central bank that will pay very far from 9 percent...
Seems like you are my brother from another mother! It's past my bed time but I will reply saying that you're totally right about steem power paying great interest. Only thing is that you have to deal with all that crypto volatility witch make a lot of investors nervous especially those unfamiliar with steemit and crypto in general.
As far Ecuador with the high interest rates. The rate that they lend money is higher than 9%. So they take money in and pay 9% on in to investors like me. Then lend it out to credit worthy businesses and people at like 13% and they profit on the 4% difference....Now I'm going to copy and paste this reply and use it as part four! lol
The volatility in crypto is insane.. But only few other cryptos pay as much "interest" in relation to the currency's inflation rate as Steem Power does.
Aah that makes sense.. So Ecuadorians have no possibility to lend money from abroad? In Europe we have some platforms to connect private lenders and credit takers and these platforms also check that there are securities in place. I would happily lend my money to some people in Ecuador and they would have to pay me only 10% interest instead of 13% to their bank lol
That's how it is in Ecuador. You just have to make sure your investment in isured with COSEDEC. Which stands for something important. Looking forward to chatting with you on skype hopefully soon! -Dan
Whoa, cooool tip about keeping your $$ in an Ecuadorian account. Should I become a resident though...hmmm.
What do you think of yourself as if you don't like the term digital nomad?
Thanks for sharing your advice/tips!
Thank you! Well I certainly wasn't a digital nomad, because I haven't worked in a decade, until now with my blog.
For the longest time I was just a guy that traveled around seeing the world living inexpensively so I didn't have to worry about work, money, and the stresses of "normal" life while experiencing the world.
I guess I thought of myself as simply a long term budget traveler who retired way too young. Now I'm a World Travel Pro! lol
Interesting what you said about guaranteed interest rates. We tried launching these in my country during some crisis when people complaining their pension plans/investments were losing money. The way it worked was the financial institution would secure the interest rate via an option. Simple enough stuff but most investors didn't want to take the lower, but guaranteed, rate and so the products fell out of favour.
Oh man. That's just how it goes with the people. Everyone wants to hit a homerun in the investment world. Where a steady guaranteed income is no longer valued. Then they cry and get bitter when things don't work out. Thank you for your endless support as always! -Dan
By the way switching over to like 75% videos. I think it will be more personal and save me a lot of time regarding writing and editing photos and so on. If you catch any of them let me know what you think! Thank you so much.
Very interesting post! Not an easy task to find that elusive balance between time and money. It's not that hard to make a lot of money if you just work hard - but then you don't have much time to enjoy the money you make.
My goal is to work as little as possible while still making enough to support the life that I want. I don't mind being a digital nomad, but I have no interest in working anywhere near 40h per week. 10-20h per week is more like it. It would be awesome to have a bank account with a guaranteed 9% interest, but as you say, that is not available in the US (nor in Sweden).
Now stop reading comments on steemit and go be a true travel-pro!
Ha ha. I read every word. Like I've said you and I think a like and have a whole lot in common! Always a pleasure! -Dan
I love how open you are in your posts dude... not very common these days. (just like those elaborate comments we talked about the last time :) I really like the style you share your life with us :) Keep up the great work. And thanks for explaining the difference between travel pro and digital nomad, sounds right! Greetings to a travel pro from a digital nomad! :))
Ha ha! Thank you! What a compliment. Means so much to me, especially coming from you! Much Respect! -Dan
An interesting conundrum to have but I wonder whether there's way to still post fresh content everyday without having to spend all day at your computer.
Do you need to make more than one past a day on Steemit to earn enough to be a World Travel Pro? What is you went out in the morning, took some shots and then blogged about it that evening?
I'm just throwing things out here obviously as I don't know what's involved but maybe you could write shorter posts with fewer photos so they take less time. Have you tried that at all?
I suspect they maybe many ways to go about this. I only write this because, when I've tried to stack up a whole load of content ready to go, it's never really worked for me. Maybe because I like writing about what's going on right now. 😊
One thing I wondered from your article . . . how long does it take to get Ecuadorian citizenship? Is it an easier/faster process then in The States or Europe?
Many questions my friend. Quickly.
-I don't have to earn any money on steemit to live how I do. I've already been able to do so for the better part of 15 years.
-A lot of my time in Ecuador was writing post so I had a back log, so if I can't produce two a day fresh, I can pull from a file on my computer. This is one of many strategies including videos, steem auto, auto vote, shorter comments, and more strategies I'm now implementing. All this is new to me, but I'm getting much more efficient.
-I feel cutting the words and photos down in number is cutting the quality, something that has brought whales to back me, giving me a substantial income. So I don't feel comfortable doing that, however everything is less new now and there for I'm working much more efficiently. But Videos are going to be a huge time saver as the video is the content, uploaded, posted, done! vs editing photos and writing.
-Ecuador citicenship is 4 or 5 years in the country....I have permanent residency (like a green card to the US) that is a two year deal.
-I think it's a faster process than the US or Europe.
Love your interest in my blog! It's an honor. Have a great day! -Dan