Early retirement: What happens when the unexpected occurs?
Financial independence and early retirement – known as the FIRE movement – requires devotees to relentlessly save, tirelessly work, and aggressively invest to free themselves of a full-time job by their 30s, 40s, or 50s. Despite their best-laid plans, what happens...
How to stay connected on the road – without going broke
Your life may be location independent, but your cell phone plan isn’t. If you’re getting directions on Google Maps, posting to Instagram, or using your phone as a mobile hotspot, you don’t want to wind up with an astronomical bill. Sure, you can turn off your data and...
How I became a remote managing director
I spoke with Kathryn Hunter, host of Compass Pod. Her podcast is all about women who have built location independent careers. We chatted about using your multidisciplinary background, scaling back when ambition is exhausting, and the power in simple ideas. You can...
How a $5K Windfall Changed My Life
When you think about life-changing money, a million-dollar lottery win or huge inheritance come to mind. But it turns out that, at least for millennials, a smaller amount would really make a difference. According to data collected by SelfLender and OnePoll, most...
Volunteering as a nomad
When people think of volunteering while traveling, they usually think of digging wells in African villages or building houses with Habitat for Humanity. Those are the sort of volunteer opportunities that require a few weeks of time — a commitment a lot of us...
Building your own pension
A few weeks ago I attended a breakfast talk on philanthropy at my university. There were relatively few students there and I ended up sitting next to a man who seemed a little bit north of retirement age (let’s say over 55) who said he worked for the NY...
Destination resolutions
People make a lot of fuss about New Years resolutions, but as a traveler, I enter each temporary home with a new resolution. The world is eager to remind me that I can’t escape myself by traveling, but they seem to have little understanding of just how much a...
Resetting my finances after a breakup
When my wife and I split up a year and a half ago, it felt like my finances were out of control. She made more than twice as much as I do. When we met I was a dumpster diving couch surfer and she was a normal person who bought things in stores. Living with her, I came...
The three types of people who insist I NEED to have children
If you’re a woman who doesn’t have kids, you’ve gotten it: the person who corners you to interrogate you on why you don’t have kids yet. Maybe it’s your aunt. Maybe it’s your best friend from middle school. Maybe it’s a...
Moving To Canada Book Makes Extra $600 Per Month
I chat with Ryan Helms from Grit and Hustle about writing my first two books and how timing is the best marketing. Listen to the podcast on Hustle to Freedom.
How I retired before I became financially independent
Most people have some ideas about what they want to do when they retire. They dream of traveling the world, following their passions, or making the world a better place. The other day I was checking my retirement accounts and the little calculator said I’m on...
Saving shouldn’t involve suffering
Saving for a big trip? Get real tips on how to cut your spending, from someone who makes very little money. Stop worrying about budgeting and denying yourself and still see the world.
How to house hack without a multi-family property
Plenty of mediocre financial advisors will tell you to cut out the ‘latte factor’ to cut back on your spending. Any good financial advisor will tell you to stop worrying about your lattes and instead go after your biggest expense — housing. Sure, you...
Do you love where you live?
You want to know what it’s really like to live in a city, but hardly anyone has lived in enough places to compare. I’ll be providing information you can’t get anywhere else — what it’s really like to live in Toronto, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, Kingston, Raleigh, and other places I’ve gotten to (temporarily) call home.
5 inspiring stories of real estate success
Buying a home empowers you to take control of your life, increases your self-worth, and best of all, gives you options to diversify your financial life. While it might feel overwhelming or out of reach, these women show that against certain odds or challenges, home...
30 Things People Who Work From Home Are Sick of Hearing
By AnnaMarie Houlis A report on telecommuting in the United States from FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics, 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce, found that 3.9 million U.S. employees who make up 2.9 percent of the total U.S. workforce work...
Do you share your parents (home) values?
The earlier this summer I chatted with Nora, of the Professional Hobo, about how my nomadic lifestyle was inspired by my parents. While most of my values come directly from my parents, there are a few areas where my views are the exact opposite of theirs. I’m...
You don’t need to quit your job to travel
And you probably shouldn’t. Every few days someone is breathless with excitement to tell me that they’ve quit their job to travel the world. So what now, they ask me. How do they become a pro blogger? Hearing this gets the same reaction as when someone...
Dear Nora: How Financial Experience Dictates How We Live and Travel
Inspired by a reader’s friction with her family regarding financial and lifestyle decisions, today we’ll jump down a rabbit hole with this multi-faceted case study illustrating how various upbringings and ranges of financial experience have played out in people’s...
Leaving Canada doesn’t mean you’re not still a resident
Going on a trip, however long it lasts, doesn’t mean you’re not a resident of Canada. You have to file taxes with the CRA until you prove that you’ve left Canada for good.
How to make friends in a new city
Moving to a new city can be pretty intimidating. Most people made friends in school, when you practically had to go out of your way to not make some BFFs. Unfortunately, it’s rare for people to actually know how to make friends. It just happens, right? Even if you...
Everything you need to know about CouchSurfing
When I decided to go on a solo backpacking trip of Western Europe, I figured I’d CouchSurf for a few nights to take a break from hostels and save a little cash. It didn’t quite work out as planned. Instead, it ended up taking over my life. I ended up CouchSurfing (CS...
Retirement planning for digital nomads
There are lots of articles out there telling you how to cut costs and save money. That’s great, but where do you invest that money for retirement when you’re a digital nomad? The remote worker with a pension plan — or even a 401k — is few and far between....
