Yep, we’re still in Texas!
Actually, Dixie made a trip to Michigan to see her sister. I’m still in Texas.
Dixie has finished her TEFL certificate classes, and I am busy working on WordPress sites for various clients. We hope to be back on the road by the first week in June, probably headed for Nicaragua unless plans shift. Still have lots of changes to make to the site here and lots of photos and video yet to post. We’ll get caught up on all that eventually.
Thanks for reading!
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Our first major technology shift was from Microsoft to Apple. We, like almost everyone else in the world, used computers mostly at work, and they were all Windows. Eventually Dixie got a Dell laptop, and years later I got a nice Windows Mobile cell phone from work. We were firmly in the Microsoft ecosphere, even though no one called it that at the time.
Our shift to Apple’s ecosphere was slow, occurring in small increments. It started with music, as we migrated from the Diamond Rio to an iRiver and eventually to an iPod around 2005 or so. In early 2007 I bought a MacBook. In 2008 I bought an iPhone. The shift went exponential from there. We have now owned and resold so many Apple products that I’ve completely lost count. Our workhorse computers during these first two years of travel were our MacBook Airs.
And now we face another ecosphere shift. The end result may be much less focused on any one hardware or software manufacturer, but the shift will be quick and rather shocking. We are going to sell both MacBook Airs and both iPod Touch units. Our new technology will be two Google Nexus 4 phones running Android and two Acer C7 Chromebooks running both Chrome OS and Linux (Ubuntu). The timeframe for this shift?
Approximately 60 days.
In so many ways it seems that the story of our adult lives will be told as a constant progression from majority to minority, swimming against the flow, breaking taboos. Or, to put it another way, doing a lot of things that make people say things like “wtf is wrong with you?” and “What are you thinking?” Our technology shift is just the latest example. But why, you may ask? What is our motivation? A good question: allow me to explain.
Right before we left the country for our year-long journey through Mexico a problem developed on my MacBook. I took it in to the Genius Bar at the local Apple store and they ended up having to send it off for repair. As our travel deadline approached, I noticed that one of the screws on the bottom was loose. I returned to the Genius bar and was told that it was stripped. They tried to tighten it but said it would require another shipment to the repair center. Unfortunately we were leaving in a couple of days, so I opted to wait, knowing that if the problem persisted I would be able to get it repaired under warranty. Mine was about to expire, and I intended to get the extended warranty — something we always did on our major Mac purchases. Except that I forgot!
Eventually the screw loosened again and fell out. The case didn’t seem to loosen or make any noise, so I decided to wait for any repair work.
Several months later Dixie’s MacBook Air developed a problem. The only way it would stay on is if you clicked on a popup window every 15 seconds or so, or if you held down the Option key. I tried all of my IT magic tricks, but nothing fixed it. And this is when we discovered that we had forgotten to purchase the extended warranty on BOTH of our Airs! I felt completely stupid. But when I looked my computer up on Apple’s site it showed that it was, in fact, still on the original one-year warranty. This seemed strange, given the fact that it was almost two years old. I found out that when they had originally repaired it they had replaced the logic board. This is the guts of the computer, and replacing it evidently resets the warranty! I successfully extended the warranty for another two years and breathed a sigh of relief.
So we took Dixie’s Air in to the regional Apple authorized repair center in Tuxtla-Gutierrez and they gave us a diagnosis: the logic board. The repair estimate was $800US. We balked. A brand new Air w/ one-year warranty wasn’t much more than that, and we wouldn’t get more than $200 for the old Air for parts. It was a big financial setback. In the end we decided to wait until we got back to the States for repairs. In the meantime we bought an iPad w/ wireless keyboard as a temporary replacement. It didn’t work out so well either, but lasted for a few months.
When we got back to Texas we sold the iPad and took the Air to the Genius Bar. We utilized the flat rate repair service (only available state-side) which meant that the repair would cost no more than $280 (+ tax). But when the Air came back, one of the keys had been smashed down and was, in fact, broken. Back to the repair center it went! Fortunately a customer service supervisor felt bad about this and completely refunded the repair costs! So by waiting to come back to the U.S. we saved $800.
Now by this point in the story you might be thinking that it sounds like Apple has great warranty and service, right? Yes, they do! But this decreases drastically once you leave the States. Repair times go up as well as costs, even under warranty. Depending on the country, you might not even find an authorized repair center for a few hundred miles. Based on our experiences, our observations and our thinking about where we would go next, we were getting a bit uneasy about taking off again carrying two expensive Macs, one without any warranty, into parts of the world where Macs were scarce. And that’s when things got crazy.
First, I bought a Google Nexus 4. It will replace my iPod Touch and works with any carrier. In each country I can just purchase a SIM card and use it. In Mexico we used cheap basic phones, but they won’t work in other countries. Second, I took my own Air back in to see if they could fix the screw thing. By now an additional screw had started loosening, and I discovered another one just flat missing! The repair would take the usual 5-7 days turnaround (although it usually happens much faster than that). I decided that this would be a good time to test out one of the new Chromebooks. I could buy it and then take it back after the Mac returned.
I had been touting them to people ever since I had seen them at Best Buy. The Acer C7 was only $199 and had a 320GB hard drive! I think they are the perfect home computers for the vast majority of people. So I bought one and brought it home on a Friday evening. By Monday morning I had given it a pretty thorough workout, and it seemed to do everything I would need it to do. Monday morning I took the Air in for shipping. Tuesday evening I got a contract to fix a busy WordPress site!
I spent most of Tuesday night and all of Wednesday working on this project. But eventually I hit a wall. I needed to do some things that were either very difficult or impossible to do with a plain Chromebook. Thursday morning I picked up my Air. So many parts had been replaced it was almost brand new! I fully intended to switch all of my work back over to the Mac, but I decided to install Linux on it and try to finish the job on the Chromebook. After all, it was doing so well that we had decided that if our MacBooks ever experienced a meltdown on the road we would just replace them with Chromebooks. Time for a thorough test.
So I did, and in fact it worked rather flawlessly. Linux was a bit much for the installed 2GB of RAM, so I ordered an 8GB stick. But overall it worked well, and the additional software tools I installed were all open source and free. And then I had this crazy thought. I talked to Dixie about maybe selling my Mac *now* instead of at some future point. I told her that my Mac would never get more money on eBay than it would right now. She not only agreed, but she blew my mind when she said “Why don’t we sell both of them now?” Zoiks!
So as soon as I finished my project and sent off the invoice, I had a new project. I had to figure out how to fully replace everything we were doing on the Macs with a new way of doing it on Linux. Photo editing, video editing, iTunes, blogging, playing Spanish tutorial DVD’s made for Windows/OS X, computer backups. Everything. And if that wasn’t enough, we decided to take some of the proceeds of the Mac sales and use it to get Dixie her very own Nexus 4 phone. We’ll sell both of the iPod Touch units with the Macs. The change will be complete.
There are several things we hope to achieve here. First, we want to minimize expenses. By selling the Macs now we minimize the cost of the switch. We also minimize the future cost of repairs and upgrades. The C7′s utilize a standard notebook drive, available all over the world. And in a worst-case scenario we could just buy a new or used laptop for a couple hundred. We’ve already priced these things on the ground in Mexico.
Second, we want to minimize repair or replacement turnaround time. By sticking with Acer, Samsung or other laptop vendors our parts supply will remain rather ubiquitous. In the big cities you can find plenty of Windows and even Apple vendors, but in smaller towns things drop off. So-called ‘developing’ nations make do with cheap laptops and netbooks. Switching minimizes our downtime.
Third, and this is a minor point, but we reduce our theft risk. Small laptops and smartphones are *everywhere* now. Macs are still viewed as a premium item and have a premium resale value to go with it.
Fourth, and now we’re into philosophy, I kinda like the whole concept of owning my own software and hardware. If I get the urge, I can hack my phone and do anything I want to it, including changing it from Android to full Linux! There is no one to tell me I can’t install some app, for any reason. My laptop will be run by open source software, free and fully configurable. We will keep Google’s Chrome OS intact, and Dixie will probably use it a lot, but we at least have a choice in the matter.
So that is the plan. I will probably write an update on this topic, especially after we get back outside of the U.S., but right now I have a lot of work to do to make all of this happen as smoothly as possible!
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Being on the road, we meet a lot of new and interesting people from all over the world and have precious little time to get to know them, perhaps only the one day or evening to form a friendship. I am, and perhaps you are too, a little shy and often stumped for something to talk about. My culture is prone to be a bit distant and untrusting of new people and so I have always been hesitant to ask anything probing or personal and seem forward and nosy.
So I have been searching, and my favorite advice for getting someone to like you is to be interested in them rather than talking about yourself (thanks to a post by Married with Luggage). That takes the pressure off me to talk and makes the subject something interesting for both of us. I also found a great article from Ash Ambirge at The Middle Finger Project called Your Life In Six Words. As part of a survey of her clients, she asked a series of questions. I am including them here, as well as a small sample of the inspiring answers left by her readers. (For the complete list of answers, read Ash’ article) I think these kinds of questions way trump “where are you from” and “what do you do,” don’t you? And they open up all kinds of possibilities for keeping the convo going beyond small talk about the weather and whether you like this city.
This first one is interesting and fun – quick, six words for your life story! Kind of like a Haiku. What would yours be? Tell me in the comments!
In response to being asked to write a 6-word memoir summing up their lives:
In response to what advice they’d give their future children:
In response to what one of their greatest unfulfilled dreams is:
In response to being asked what they believe with all their heart:
In response to a cause they’re really passionate about:
In response to something they’re most proud of:
In response to something they wonder if:
Cheers!
by 
We did a lot of work and planning before we quit our jobs. We often refer to what we are doing as having ‘run away from home.’ It’s a bit of a joke, but there is some truth to it. But we did sell all of our things. We got out of our home and mortgage and moved into a small apartment. We quit our jobs. We traveled half of the U.S. and later sold our final possessions and vehicles. We got down to a few suitcases. This was a monumental shift from the average American lifestyle, and it didn’t happen overnight.
Near the end of this process we were in a holding pattern. We could have continued indefinitely at the ‘employed’ stage but we finally pulled the trigger after many spreadsheets and calculations. The one hole in it all, the one fly in the ointment: money. We had some, but the spreadsheets showed that we would need a bit of luck and some extra income on the side, on the road. So we took off while a few ideas were still in-progress and with nothing guaranteed.
For those of you who are still in one of these stages, let me give you some friendly advice here. Most of the time we encourage people to stop waiting, to get off their couch and do something. We don’t want you to wait until you are seventy-five before you realize that you wish you had seen more of the world. But sometimes you really do need to wait. The best (and only) time to wait is right before you quit your job. Once you disconnect from that source of income everything changes. So before you pull the trigger, be sure that you have a good plan and are reasonably well-positioned financially.
As it turns out, our plan had some holes in it. The good news is that we have savings to fall back on. The bad news is that we threw some of it away on what I am now referring to as schemes. Here is a brief list of our on-the-road income attempts to-date.
[NOTE: In all of these cases, you can find both resellers of services and individuals who will swear up and down that these strategies work and work well. In our case, they all failed spectacularly]
- niche web sites – you attempt to get your sites ranked high in the search engines, which provides traffic that can bring in advertising revenue through (usually) Google Adsense. Keywords and backlinks and spun articles, oh my!
- ecommerce – Selling ‘dropship’ items on our web site and eBay
- Gold – both paper and coin investments
- Stock market
– mechanical investing (late 90′s)
– options (mainly Apple stock, 2009)
– option spreads and iron condors (2010)
– high yield premium REIT dividend stocks (2012)
All of these but one are something which I would now categorically refer to as a scheme. The other (ecommerce) is closer to a real plan, but we ran it like a scheme and never intended to take the time and effort to do the administrative support work. We have been looking for something automated, something we could set and forget. We wanted to bypass traditional blood, sweat and tears. We were looking for the ever-elusive holy grail of passive residual income. We’re still looking…
Part of the reason for this is that we were attempting to shorten the traditional timeframe, where one works for the majority of their life and then quits their job and moves right into the retirement home. Yes, I know I’m exaggerating a bit there, but when you shorten the timeframe significantly (a.k.a., early retirement) and you aren’t already rich, you have to save up a lot of money or work a non-traditional job on the road. All of our scheming has been in an attempt to avoid the latter, actual employment – working for someone else at their beck and call. It has always been something we have viewed as a fallback position, something we wished to avoid, a true last resort.
They say that the first step towards recovery is to admit that you have a problem. I am acknowledging the problem right now: schemes! I’m done with them. It’s time that I admit that they just don’t work for me. I’ll leave it to others to determine the underlying causes. It is either because:
A – All of my attempts were truly get-rich-quick schemes and rarely work for anyone (see ‘investor psychology’);
B – My attempts were legitimate but require exquisite timing or great luck or some other intangible;
C – My attempts were legitimate but require a special type of personality; or
D – Everything I tried is not only legitimate but works for the vast majority of people. I simply have a truly bad combination of personality or aptitude which causes every attempt to always fail on a grand scale.
I have been unable to determine which of these is the case. While I suspect A, it is possible that the answer is D and that I am unable to see this because I am too close to the problem. In the end, it doesn’t matter. I have given them all a full-press, long-term attempt and the results were dangerous to our long-term finances. I must move on.
Which leads to the question: What now?
A slightly more traditional approach, for sure. But before we start filling out job applications, we have plenty of other options. Most of them attempt to leverage our existing skill sets and involve freelancing or something similar.
For my wife’s part, our original plan had her doing some work for her ex-coworkers. She has done some of that, and it pays pretty good, but work availability started off sporadic and then went downhill from there. She also attempted some video transcriptions based on a referral, but that turned out to be much more work for less pay than we had hoped (with a lot of technical glitches thrown in) and we had to pass it on to someone else. We still have some options here, but we haven’t fully explored them.
For me, I will need to leverage my I.T. and web site/database experience. I’ve started a site for the business (iPrioriti) and I recently helped a local business get online and am currently working on another WordPress site for a friend. Additionally, an opportunity has opened up to teach some basic PC skills classes here in San Cristobal de las Casas.
We also have our travel blog. We have had a few people pay us for backlink articles or sidebar links, but we don’t have the traffic yet for much of that. It does, however, give us a platform for a mailing list and publicizing our eBooks as we write them. We also occasionally review products and then link to them via affiliate links. So far the income from this has been minimal.
In addition, we may even end up looking into the one job many travelers seek out when things get tight: teaching English! When combined with living in a country with low expenses, it could offset most if not all of our budget. Certificates are generally required, and that costs some money, but not too much in the ‘scheme’ of things. It also fits well with our slow travel, living for a time in each country we like and getting to know the locals.
So those are our current plans, and frankly they should have been our focus all along. But at least we are, indeed, now fully focused on them, leaving the schemes behind — hopefully for the last time. In the meantime we still have savings in the bank and the expenses in Mexico are low. Every morning we wake up and decide what we want to do for the day, and it’s hard to put a price tag on that.
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A couple of weeks ago we reached a milestone, the end of our first six months in Mexico. We can’t believe it has been that long already! Six months is also the standard time limit for a tourist visa. In order to extend your stay, you have to spend at least seventy-two hours outside the country before re-entry, at which time you can renew your visa for another six months. So that is what we did.
We took an all-day shuttle which dropped us off at the border after making sure all of our passports and visas were stamped out. Then we simply walked down the street to the Guatemalan side of town and had them stamp us all in. After that, we got into a different shuttle and finished the trip to Panajachel. We stayed in Pana for three nights and visited a couple of the other towns on Lake Atitlan while we were there. Dixie will post a full trip report with lots of pictures real soon!
Before we left we had a few decisions to make. Initially we had planned to just move to Guatemala and stay about 90 days before moving on south, but a few things came up that caused us to hesitate. One brief possibility was a seven month housesitting opportunity in southern France, in the Provence region. Not only is this a part of France we have long wanted to visit, but it is only a couple of hours south of where one of Dixie’s cousins lives, in Lyon. We considered shifting our travel plans and flying to Europe, but there were some obstacles. First, most of Europe is in what is called the Schengen Zone. Your typical tourist visa is for ninety days, and that is for the entire Schengen Zone! If you move around enough and occasionally visit the U.K. you can stretch that out, but it’s tricky. In the end they selected someone else, but we also looked at several other opportunities in southern Spain. We already know basic Spanish, enough to live here for six months, so that is also appealing.
One reason we thought of changing our plans is that there simply aren’t that many housesitting opportunities south of here. A couple in Costa Rica, maybe one in Nicaragua, one in Panama, and… that’s about it! Every housesitting site that we use shows a global map. North America and Europe are just *full* of pins, and quite a few pins are scattered around SouthEast Asia, but South America and Africa are just empty. So if we do continue going south from here we will compensate by living 2-3 months at a time in each place and finding cheap rent. In the meantime we are staying put in San Cristobal. It’s just so nice here, and we have some expat friends, and we’ll be paying about $212 in rent for a studio apartment with a beautiful courtyard, wifi and hot water. The previous tenant is now living here and will leave some furniture for us. We’ll have a small kitchen and fridge and a bathroom all *inside* the apartment, which ought to be a nice change.
But tomorrow I will be taking a phone call from China. An interesting opportunity came up recently and I applied for it. A couple of expats run a business in Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. They make all kinds of apparel products and they are going to hire an intern for 90 days. In exchange for 4-5 hours a day, five days a week I would get a free apartment w/ wifi and a stipend, free laundry and lunches most days and possibly a cook! I would be running their website and working with their staff to do some creative stuff with photography and video, plus marketing in general. Tomorrow is a screening call, and I have no idea how many other candidates they are looking at, but hopefully we’ll know by tomorrow night what the possibilities are. Sure, it’s a job, and it is nice to not have to work, but flying to that part of the world is expensive and having a group of people on hand to help you get settled would be a big bonus. And who knows, maybe it turns into something I really love doing and becomes a full-time job? I’m still in China, learning Cantonese! Seems like an adventure to us.
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