Whenever I tell people about the Location Free Lifestyle, invariably if they are working they’ll say “I have no time to travel.”

I have no time

My answers to that is….  ”Really?  I have 24 hours in a day, do you have less than me? ”

Wellm we all have the same amount of time each day, it’s how we choose to use it.  What do you choose, the 2 hour commute and 8 hours behind a city desk each day?  Or spend the 8 hours working by the beach with zero communute time – that you can then use to go swimming in the sea?

As we’ve seen in the other posts it does take time to set these things up.  But your time is your own, and you’ve only got a century or so left so make the most of it!

So why work?

And at the same time when I talkt to people who spend all their time travelling they always say “why work at all?”

Many, many people spend almost their entire time travelling around the world.  They work a bit, save some money then head off.   They’re not just beach bum hippies, but all sorts of people including ex accountants bankers and lawyers.  They often say, why not just travel instead of working in different places?

The anwers to this is “purpose”.  Yes I love being by the beach, seeing amazing things and meeting amazing people.  But at the same time you have to a have a purpose in life.  What do you leave behind and how can you help other people?  Without that it can become tedious and meaningless to just travel around, especially when that’s all you can talk about with people!

Yesterday was great for me to just spend the whole day slobbing around the pool.  But at 3 this morning I woke up wanting to do more, so started work.  If you love your work, and you spend the time finding something that really makes a difference in the world then you really want to do it!

And if you’re going to do that you might as well do it online, with wonderful friends in beautiful and more often than not cheaper, places all around the world!

For example last night was the Michael Jackson memorial.  I happened to be in Japan, which meant it would start at 2AM.   All my friends with regular jobs were having to rush around trying to beg their bosses for the next morning off.  For everyone that was location free, we just worked till midnight (I finished up recording my latest CD – yeah!) then headed off to the bars at 2 o’clock till dawn.   We still do the same amount of work, well maybe a lot more, but if something unmissable crops up, you have the flexibility to be there.

So where do we start making money online?

This is the question I get asked more than anything!  Have a look through the previous posts on this site, especially the ones marked “Make money online”

And one really, really excellent free course I can recommend is the one by Shoemoney.  It’s heavy going, not for the feint hearted, but it has real ideas that do work.   Why is he giving it away for free if it’s so good?  I think it’s so you’ll think about signing up for his website tools when you do start, which is a pretty good deal, you get all the info for free and then get a choice if you want to pay for it later! Sign up here.

For example a few years ago I was going out with a very nice girl who happened to live very near to where I was living.  Then she decided she wanted to do her Masters degree at a university on another island.  Now for most people that would mean a long-distance relationship (those never work!) or a big upheaval or lots of arguments!  For me it was quite simple, as I could work anywhere, in between gigs I simply flew back to her island instead of the one I was living on before.  Really easy and happy happy!

Another example is when my Mum had to go into hospital.  Normal lifestyles would mean you’d have to take time off work.  But I simply booked the next flight and did my work at my Mum’s house for the next few weeks.  (Side note:  don’t ever just buy “the next flight”  I ended up travelling via Kuala Lumpur which added 10 hours to the flight!  Make sure you ask for the “one that will get me there the quickest!”)

Sometimes you’ll have (ex) friends who can be bitter about a location free lifestyle choice, they’ll say you are selfish or not caring about others.  Really they’re just jealous and what they are saying is a lot of nonsense as being location free means just that, you work online so you are free to go wherever, whether that means being on a beach, on a yacht, in a new country,  with people important to you or just being by people’s  sides when they need you.

With a traditional job the answer would probably be “no.”  So it’s yet another reason to start at least part of your lifestyle as being location free right now. Just in case an over reaction by an under educated government official takes away your freedom and makes you stay at home all day!

The SARS virus hit people in Asia pretty bad when companies were closed and people stayed at home.  Mexico has a similar thing this weekend.  But people still need to buy things, learn things and entertain themselves.  They’re more likely to do this online at a time like this.  So that’s where you need at least part of your income to be.

It’s not the “Swine Flu” disease that’s causing the problems, it’s the media fuelled over reaction.   But let’s make sure it doesn’t effect our lives back on planet Earth too much!

As well as all the cool stuff John was also interested in things like the sacrifices and risks involved in a location free lifestyle as well as specific things like  “Is it possible to make a good living with niche sites and Google Adsense ads?”  or about travelling with kids or advice for people wanting to do a similar thing.  I guess my answer of “don’t” for the latter question would surprise people on here, but have a read of the interview to see why!

• $100 a month is tough.
• $1000 a month is really quite nice.
• $10,000 a month you are in luxuryville central.

In the beginning you probably aren’t making that much money online so you want to choose a location that’s fairly inexpensive such as Thailand or Argentina.  Then as you move up the ladder you can try other countries such as Sweden or Japan.

A real example

Let me give you a concrete example.   At the place right next to me here in the Bang Po area of Koh Samui, a clean, cool, safe bungalow will set you back 290 Bahts per night.  (I’ll do the conversion to dollars and Euros at the end)  You can get a lot cheaper than this, but I’m erring on the conservative side here.   If you eat where the locals eat, a good Thai curry with rice will set you back 50 Bahts or less.  So let’s say 100 Bahts a day for food.  Then you need to download your email and upload your work so 30 Bahts a day for the internet.  That’s basically all you need.

• 290 + 50 + 50 + 30 =   420 Bahts or about $12 US or $9 Euros per day
• =  $360 or 270 Euros per month.

So that’s your basic living expenses.  Remember you’re working out here so I’ve included no beer money.  “Delayed gratification” is one of the “rules of the rich” that the experts always go on about.

Other costs

Now we need to figure in other costs such as your flight, which will be the major factor.  The key here is to stay as long as you can by getting the longest visa possible.  But say if your flight costs $600 then that’s $200 split over 3 months.  There are ways to get your flights paid for, but I’ll cover those in a future post.

Plus you also need insurance, never go anywhere without insurance.  That can be around $1000 a year  from any of the international insurance firms.  So add in an extra $100 a month.

Plus you also need to save %10 of your income.  Even if you are earning very, very little then always, always do this, or so says the Richest Man in Babylon.  It’s a fantastic discipline to learn,  if you wait till you are earning a lot till you save then you’ll never do it, and you’ll never be financially free.

So the income you need is …

So basically you either need to have an income or savings to cover around $700 a month.  If you work ten hours a day here building your online business or online job then that certainly is achievable with a couple of months of hard, smart work.  Remember it’s not “easy” it’s just a lot more fun to be in a funky location!

I’m also assuming you’ve paid off any credit card or other debt you have.  That has to be your first priority before you even think about anything else.

Or for $100 a month

Some of you will be thinking that this is impossible. Well, fair enough, this isn’t for everyone.  But one of the skills you’ll need is believing in yourself and what you can truly do.   I’m not trying to sell anything or promote a “get quick rich” scheme, I’m just passing on my experiences in the hope that it might help a few people realise their dream lifestyle.

When I first started my current business I was living on $100 a month (from writing a magazine column).  Luckily I didn’t have accommodation to pay for, but this was in Japan, one of the most expensive countries in the world!  I used to have fights all the time with mates about which ramen shop to go to as I couldn’t afford anything more than the very cheapest.   But I was working all day, and all night and it’s amazing how much money you save when you do that.  And also how much you save when you don’t have a car or watch TV.

Delayed Gratification

It’s always a sacrifice in the beginning, but if you are living like this in a wonderful location you begin to appreciate the free things in life like walks on the beach or mountains or looking at the sunset or even window shopping instead of the real thing.  If you can carry that ability along as you start to make more money then you will be truly rich.   It’s also amazing how the cheaper places work out to be much more romantic date locations.

Well except for the window shopping!

The view from my “office” this morning.

OK, so you’re hooked on the idea of a “Digital Nomad” or “Location Free Lifestyle” but you’re not sure where to start?  I quite sympathise!  I sort of stumbled into this lifestyle by accident when I suddenly realised one day that I didn’t actually have anywhere to live any more.   But if you look at it from the start it can be a big mountain to climb.

Money First

The first thing I’d say is to get the finances in place.  Everything costs money! There are two ways I’d suggest of going about this.  One is to save up enough money in your current job to pay for a year of travelling.  That way even if none of your business adventures or ways of making money online work out, or more likely none of them pay any money out in the 6 months, you still have a cushion to fall back on.

Still in school or work?

The second way, and this is probably the one I’d recommend, is to start an internet business whilst you still have your current job or if you are still in school.  Spend more of your spare time making an online business than out partying!  There’s plenty of time  to party later, and it’s a lot more fun on the beach!

Once you’ve got a trickle of income coming in then if you plan your first year to be in a cheaper location such as South America or parts of Asia, then you’ll probably spend a lot less than you would back home, so as long as your internet income covers that then cool, away you go!

Start Here!

For a brilliant first step I’d highly recommend Adam Khoo’s “Secrets of Self Made Millionaires“  This guy started out with nothing and now earns over $500,000 a year, with a big chunk of that being online.  I just finished the book the other day and it is the best example of how to set up the finances for your new Location Free Lifestyle!

Yep, that’s me in the photo with the coconut trees behind me!

“The longest journey starts with just one step”  so take your first step today!

So having a boss to me sounds like far too risky a thing to do.  Isn’t it much better to be self employed and be your own boss, where you are the only one who can fire you?

Of course that’s not quite true as being self employed means you have lots and lots of bosses; all your customers.  If someone has bought something from me then they have a right to tell me off if something isn’t right.  That can be a bit stressful.  Until you realise that you can actually fire customers as well.  Very often you hear from companies that 20% of their customers cause 80% of the problems, so just give them a refund and move on to helping the other 80% of your customers who want to work with you to make your product and service even better!

In any case having no boss is just one more advatnage of a location free lifestyle, don’t you think?