Digital Nomad

We are Housesitting Our Way Around the World – You Can Do This, Too!

July 18, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

housesitting rent-free — Housesitting our way around the world – Living rent-free!

Housesitting. Most people haven’t heard of it.

Well, get excited because you’re going to learn how housesitting is an amazing secret world that few people know about.

As I wrote in the last post, I’m sharing the how, what, when, where, why about being a Digital Nomad Family.

My big message is that you can do this, too! YES!

As I share everything we’re doing, you’ll see that, it’s possible to start planning your own trip abroad (or even just around North America). The point is that it’s possible to be location independent and design the life you want.

Let’s begin with Housesitting.

I won’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it. Anyone I mention it to never has.

The important idea to know is that this is one of the keys to our living abroad.

It’s not the only way to live frugally around the world, but it’s a HUGE one, and it’s how we’re doing things right now.

Housesitting Paris — Housesitting outside of Paris. Yes, Paris!

Housesitting has made our travel-the-world dreams come true.

As a Digital Nomad Family, it’s been a way for our family to live “rent-free” while traveling the world. Let me say that again, we’re living rent-free! I think you can see how amazing this is.

Housesitting has saved us thousands of dollars!

We’ve been housesitting for over a year (on and off in 2017 in the United States before we moved abroad and consistently for the whole time we’ve been living in Europe and the UK for 2018).

Now, we are housesitting experts, and we wrote a book teaching you how to be one, too.

What is a Digital Nomad Family?

July 17, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

What is a digital nomad family? And can you be one, too?

Let’s simply break it apart:

Digital:

Being a “digital” nomad family means: we make a living by digital means. Generally, we use our laptops to make money. Specifically, I write books and I write this blog. Greg writes and illustrates children’s books, plus he works as a business/marketing strategist with clients. That latter is phasing out a bit, so sometimes he takes on biz consulting clients and sometimes all his time is spent on books. He is also the man behind helping me maintain my website and my general tech support. (If this way of making money isn’t you, then stay tuned as I share on my blog exactly how we’re doing it, so you can, too.)

Nomad:

We move around the world. I expect we’ll be trying different areas of the world for many years since there is so much to see. Then, we’ll note our favorite places and find ourselves living there for longer periods of time. (I’ll share everything we’re learning along the way from picking places, finding places to stay, and traveling to and from. I’ll also share what I did wrong this first year so you can learn from my mistakes.)

Family:

We’re a family of three. I’m in my early 40s. Greg his early 50s. Our daughter started this journey when she was seven. (Future blog posts: How do we handle being around each other so much (noise-cancelling headphones anyone? just kidding) What about school? Do I ever want to pull my hair out? What about the family we left behind? How do I manage to work, travel, and care for my family all at the same time?)

That’s our life in a nutshell.

We move around the world and make a living anywhere, so long as we have a laptop (or iPhone/iPad) and an Internet connection. But, obviously, there’s so much more than that! And, that’s where this blog comes in.

Now that you know what a digital nomad family is, we can get started with exploring our daily lives and how we are doing it everything from:

Where we live
How we get there
What challenges we overcome
What we eat to stay healthy and fit
What we do about school for our daughter
How we handle family that is back home
What we did with all of our stuff
Health insurance
Finances and banking

And so much more!

That’s just a sampling of topics to come! Stay tuned and stay in touch with me on Twitter!

We’re a Digital Nomad Family & You Can Be One, Too!

July 17, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

Eiffel Tower digital nomad family — Dreams coming true at the Eiffel Tower.

Do you dream of living in another part of the world?

Ever thought about what it would be like to live a digital nomad life or be a digital nomad family?

Well, listen up!

Because… you can do this.

It’s time for a change.

I’m living all over the world with my family. This is no family vacation though. No! We sold it all to live around the world and be a digital nomad family. (And, you can be one, too.)

We are happily homeless. :)

As I write this, we’re in gorgeous Wales, UK. We’ll be living in Southampton, England in August. In September, we will be living in France for a few weeks.

We’re loving our new life.

A famous travel writer, Ibn Battuta, said the following:

“Traveling, first it leaves you speechless and then turns you into a storyteller.”

And, that’s the future of my blog.

I’m bursting with stories to share about our travels so that you can do this, too! I’ve learned so much and continue to learn every day. You will discover how in the hell we ended up doing this, because it’s an amazing life that you can live, too.

Our love of travel, change, exploring, learning, and our desire to give our daughter the best possible future ever(!) drove our decision. We took a huge leap, and we wake up every day bursting with happiness and excitement because we’re living the dream.

Traveling Just Got Easier

June 21, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

Digital nomad couple — Enjoying a pub in England as a digital nomad couple.

I had an exciting moment last week while traveling.

We were on our second trip coming from England to France on the Eurostar train. From the moment we entered St. Pancras train station in London, I felt a tiny bit of familiarity.

I’d been there before. I knew where I was going, and I knew what to do. However, I hadn’t appreciated it in the moment, because it didn’t really dawn on me. That would be later.

I remembered the first time we went there we didn’t give ourselves extra time, and getting through security was a tad stressful with so many unknowns. After finally getting through to the waiting area, we found it was already crowded with not much room to unload our heavy bags and relax.

But, this second time was different.

My Digital Nomad Life (So Far)

May 31, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

We’re living the dream we had. We sold it all and moved abroad to live a digital nomad life. It’s working, more specifically, we’re working. We’re making it happen.

We originally decided to live a digital nomad life, as a family, because we could. We both essentially work from laptops and there was no reason to stay tied to Arizona.

We homeschool our daughter so that wasn’t a factor either. In the following picture we’re investigating a dead bat that was brought to us as a gift from the cat of the house.

We wanted to run and explore the world. We wanted to move around and change it up on a regular basis. And. We wanted to save money. Living abroad, in many places, makes it easier to save money if you’re living the digital nomad life.

So, here we are moving around Europe at a pretty quick clip, living a digital nomad lifestyle. Taking trains and planes (I can’t decide which I like better, though probably trains). We’re trying different areas and seeing if we fancy anyplace in particular to stay longer.

I think we’re traveling too fast though.

I heard someone describe it: speed dating countries.

The 3 Best Travel Day Supplements

May 19, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

Travel Day Supplements

I take three specific travel day supplements on travel days.

And, they always help me stay healthy. Whether I’m traveling by airplane or train, I get a boost for my immune system with these. I stay healthy and avoid getting sick. Yay! 💪🏼 💥

Sadly, it’s common for people to get sick after a traveling day.

I mean, who wants to get sick just before a vacation? Not me.

A number of factors contribute to people getting sick from travel day.

There are crowds of people in places like airports, train stations, and subway stations, inevitably with some who are sick.
We are usually in confined areas (think airplanes), where you can’t get enough fresh, clean air and people are sharing germs.
We often lack sleep due to travel days being long and starting early in the morning.
And, let’s not forget stress. The excitement or anxiety of traveling depresses the immune system.
Lastly, our diets tend to suffer. Many of us eat more sugars and refined carbohydrates out of convenience.

Not a problem for me though.

I found three travel day supplements that greatly boost my immune system, and they help prevent me from getting sick, in spite of a travel day being harsh on my body.