Who travels full-time for 5+ years?
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2014 when we left the USA bound for a year in Costa Rica.
What does it take to make it last?
Are you looking down the line and thinking you might want to make a complete lifestyle change and travel forever? I know, forever, is a big word. I will let you in on a little secret. When we decided to make this travel lifestyle a reality we said we were going forever, but we only said it under the sheets in our bed with a whisper. We told everyone else it was a one-year adventure and then who knows? Oh, we knew, we sold almost all of our belongings and went all in. Will and I have always been “all in’ers” even before we were Jess and Will and WorldTowning. We don’t go halfway. Home would always be there so what was the risk? A couple more years in the corporate world before retiring in the event it did not work out and we came back? We were willing to risk it.
It was a different world when we started this travel life back in 2014. There were barely any blogs (remember those?). We had a couple of people we stalked for info about how to do this lifestyle, but we did not have access to the magnitude of resources new WorldTowners have today. Not even close. We figured a lot out by trial and error, lots of error. These days were hard and as a result, became the catalyst for our coaching business. Why should you all learn the hard way when we can save you time, tears, and money? The travel lifestyle switch is challenging enough, you should stack as many cards in your favor as possible.
For the sake of this post, I want to identify our definition of a full-time WorldTowner:
Someone who leaves their home country to travel, work, educate, and live in the world beyond the boundaries they already know for all 12 months of the year. Someone who changes cities and countries a minimum of several times a year. Someone who is integrating into the local culture by way of friends, learning the language, eating the food, etc.
We do believe you still have aspects of WorldTowning if:
you are living in your birth country and exploring there
are corporate ex-pats, military abroad, or missionaries
travel for 6 months and then back home for 6 months
But for the sake of this post, we are talking about what it takes to last out here full-time in a very foreign land, where you must provide for yourself and no services are offered as a result of the arrangement you have with those who sent you to this far off land. As a result, what we are mentioning does not take the 3 options above into consideration, not because we don’t want to, but because we do not have the experience to offer insight since that is not how we have WorldTowned.
We have talked to 100s and 100s, maybe even thousands of full-time travelers at this point while traveling ourselves, as coaching clients, and when back in our birth country. We have had long and deep chats with those who are branching on 2 decades living as WorldTowners and those who are 4 weeks in, fresh out of the gate. I (Jessica) can spend 30 minutes with someone and tell you how long they will last out here. Sometimes it is easy, like our new friends from Brazil who are on a 3-year adventure and then want to go back home. Easy because they clearly have stated their plan, are on the same page, and want to return to their old life after the adventure. Other times it takes me the full 30 minutes.
The biggest obstacles are usually:
One partner is not onboard
Ego and needing the validation of an office
Educating the kid(s)
Day-to-day is too hard, the constant chaos
Finances
Being an unknown is too lonely
Too much time with partner and kids
Left to travel to escape the life they did not like at home and it followed them
So, what does it take to last as a full-time WorldTowner for more than 3-5 years: (in no particular order)
Grit:
Courage, resolve resilience, all of it. You must be tough, tough, tough. There is no pampering in this lifestyle if you are in it for the long haul. If this is just a 1-2 year sabbatical then the pampering will be abundant because “I need a rest or when will I ever be here again or I have worked hard and deserve it,” will be justified common phrases. There will be many days when you are faced with a decision that will take great courage to proceed. At this point, you will either grab that grit or recede at the fork in the road and head home.
Patience:
This has been the hardest one for me because I am naturally not a very patient person, and I was raised in a country where patience is not necessary. Being born and raised in the USA I could have what I wanted at my fingertips, even on a Sunday or at 2 am. There will be long lines, 14 visits to immigration for your visa renewal and still no visa, miscommunications, cultural differences, bureaucracy, and more. We recently spent 4 months in Colombia and although the medical care was very good I would have to wait 2-3 hours in the doctor's office before they took me into my appt. This is a cultural difference, but it made me bonkers and cost me valuable work hours which pissed me off. There is nothing I hate more than valuing your own time at the expense of wasting others.
Suffering:
When we first meet with future full-time WorldTowners we tell them they might have some suffering. This is very alarming for them, but we still stand by it. “Suffering, what do you mean?” You will not be tortured by way of having your fingers cut off, but there will be internal suffering, it is inevitable. The saying goes like this, “if it were easy, everyone would do it.”
Stable Income:
You need a steady income or a lot of money in savings. You can’t leave thinking “I will start a business when I get there or I will become a YouTuber.” Neither of those is very easy. Figure out the income equation way before you launch, heck start now if you don’t have a plan yet. Make a budget and stick to it. Also, have an emergency fund because something will inevitably go wrong and it will cost you money you had not planned on.
Do work you enjoy and/or value:
What provides your income should also provide you joy. You will need to work when others are playing so the work you do should bring value to your life. 90% of digital nomads report being highly satisfied at work according to anyplace.com. That is a staggering number considering all we ever hear from people in offices is how miserable they are.
Willing to work when others are exploring or sleeping:
This is hard because most of the people you encounter will be on a 1-2 year sabbatical which means they have a lot of time (limited commitments) and plan to maximize their time traveling by doing it all. I cannot tell you how many times Will and I and the kids have been criticized for working too much and missing the whole point of travel. Of course, this is usually from someone on a 1-2 year sabbatical so it is a bit understandable. My response is always kind, but also very clear, “you don’t last out here for almost a decade because you soak up every experience, it takes hard work.”
Willing to reinvent:
If work starts going sour, your business is not sustainable anymore, your work stops bringing you joy, layoffs, etc you will need to be resourceful to come up with another income or you will need to return home. Five years ago I was getting ready to launch the coaching portion of WorldTowning. The company Will worked for at the time decided to bring all contractors in house and he was offered a position in the London office. Instead of doing what felt like going backward from the lifestyle we had created, he decided to join me in WorldTowning. He was already producing vlogs, but this gave him the opportunity to dive deeper into his storytelling and editing to bring our YouTube channel to the next level, a place where his passion lived.
Willing to lose friends and family:
This is true, very true. Your friends and family won’t change, but you will and everything will be viewed from a different lens. Things will be different in many cases and you will have to decide who to keep in your life and who to remove. This is pretty common among those who have traveled for more than 5 years. It is painful, but you will survive.
Willing to risk your finances:
If you are out here for 10 years+ you will have bad financial months and maybe even a bad year or two. If you decide to weather the storm, rather than cut your losses and head back to stationary life, then this might compromise your finances. When Covid hit and we had a travel business we knew life was going to get hard, we had no idea the magnitude, but we chose to stay out here rather than return. It impacted us financially and although it is not ideal we are incredibly glad we did not go back to the US. Who knows if we would have made it back out here, bought a boat, visited Japan, had all the amazing experiences since then and more?
Willing to be introspective:
There is no way you will last out here for more than 3-5 years if you are unwilling to be introspective. Each WorldTowner is emotionally and mentally impacted by the experiences they have, the people they meet, and the heartbreak they are exposed to along the way. If you bury these emotions they will surface and control your life which will inevitably land you back home.
Willing to face any trauma and heal:
This dovetails from above. Traveling full-time and being out of one's comfort zone digs up all kinds of “stuff” whether it be childhood trauma, buried emotions, addictions, relationship issues, etc. I have one word…therapy. Be willing to seek therapy for whatever comes up when the onion is peeled back, be honest and you will heal. I recommend starting therapy as a family the day you start WorldTowning to get you off to the right start. The most underestimated and undervalued part of planning for full-time travel is the emotional impact it will have on each individual, a couple’s relationship, and a family once you arrive in the far-off land. If you only take one thing away from this post, take this!
Willing to develop a strong “why” and stick to it:
WHY are you doing this? Make it strong because when the going gets tough you need a strong why to pull you through. “Travel sounds fun.” “I need a vacation” Neither is a strong enough why. What is on the line? For us, our “why” is our kids and once they are launched we will have to find a new why, but for 8+ years now the why has been them. Creating stronger bonds in our family, making memories over buying stuff, and learning about the world out in the world. We take this into consideration with every big decision we have to make.
Ability to say “no” if something does not serve your “why”
Saying no is hard when you are traveling, especially when you meet other travelers and they are all going to do this “big” thing. Remember most full-timers are only out here for a short time, very few want to or can be out traveling longer. If you treat this time as a vacation and say “yes” to everything then you won’t last long either.
Comfortable with being unknown:
This is a big one. You won’t get recognized (unless you are a YouTuber) on the street, your local coffee shop will not know you by name, and you won’t be invited to all the parties. You can however create community wherever you are living, it is even easier now with all the social media. This gave us great comfort and friends early on in our travel years which set the pace for how we approached community building for all the years since.
Willing to live without the basic comforts of western countries:
There will be months when expenses are high and you need to sleep in a surf hostel, your family of 4 in one room, and share a bathroom with the very socially active young men also sleeping at the hostel. I bet you did not get that was us. Ha. We wanted to take scuba lessons in Japan, but to afford it with our monthly budget we had to reduce our housing costs for a month. In comes the surf hostel. We have some amazing stories and good times from the experience, so it is never all bad.
Willingness to stay away from hanging with a group and groupthink
If I had to pick, this would be in the top 3 of most important. The people who last the longest out here are not looking to only hang with people like them, they are not looking for spots that are hubs for WorldTowners, they are not looking for co-working/co-living/co-educating communities. They had that in their stationary life and they have set out to travel because they want a different life that reaches beyond people just like them for their fulfillment and the growth of their family and children. This topic deserves a whole post on its own as there is a lot more to share, coming soon.
Willing to take a democratic approach to life, parenting, and work.
This is the best way to get kids, tweens, and teens on board, especially teens. If they feel they are part of democracy and are heard the more likely they are to want to stay traveling. We have given our kids voting power on many of our big decisions. After Ecuador Will and I wanted to move to Spain. We decided to let the kids choose between Spain and France. They picked France and so we moved to France. I have dozens of examples like this. I do believe giving them a vote has been the biggest contributor to them never wanting to stop the travel lifestyle.
If you don’t follow the guidebook above are you doomed to never last more than 3 years traveling? No. This is what we have seen from our experience, but clearly, there are exceptions, outliers, and those who would disagree. You do you and hopefully, our suggestions will help you along the way to make the whole process just a little bit smoother.
If you want this you will find a way to make it work. The best advice I can offer is to listen to those who have gone before you. Ask them what worked. What did not? What would they do differently in today's world? Don’t just listen to one person, listen to many even if they are not the same traveling style you want, not the same age, not going to the same far off land. The more you can learn before you jump the better your success rate will be. And find a good therapist! The biggest surprise for us was the emotions involved and the family dynamic once we made a huge life change like this. Do not underestimate the power it holds and how it can make or break the whole experience.
Thanks for joining me today. I hope you found value in it and were not discouraged. What are you struggling with right now? Are you thinking of full-time travel forever? Let’s chat.
xoxo,
Jessica
Our new coaching App
Let’s chat! Many of you have booked coaching chats with us before through Calendly, which has been fabulous. However, we are always looking for ways to increase our offerings and give you a more seamless experience. One of you reached out to us and thought we would love Intro— an app where you can book chats with experts from many areas of interest. I set up a profile, had our first coaching client and fell in love. Plus, it allows you to purchase gift certificates for those special people in your life or as a gift to a spouse who wants to travel or maybe talk about homeschooling.
Intro gives options for 15 mins, 30 mins, 45 mins, or an hour, but if you need more time we can chat about that as well.
If one of our meeting times does not meet your schedule you can request a different time. We will do our best to accommodate.
Who is this for?
Someone who wants to
...move abroad permanently to one location or travel full-time to various locations.
...hike the Camino de Santiago in Spain (packing, accommodations, emotions, documenting).
...apply for a long-stay visa in France.
...learn how to educate alternatively (homeschool, international school, university requirements).
...discover all the accommodation options when vacationing or full-time traveling (housesit, Airbnb, hostels, house swap, trusted house sitters, long stay negotiations)
...discover the path to language learning for my children (resources, tutors, tips, and tricks).
...receive custom travel itineraries for vacations, group, or full-time travel.
...take a summer, 6 months, or year sabbatical to a foreign country.
...rv Europe (buying/selling a van, campsites, itineraries, boondocking).
...enlist guidance with the logistics after I have decided to move abroad.
...explore being a better humanitarian (volunteering, literature, community).
...understand the emotional impact of choosing a different path than the norm (individuals, couples, families, creating a new normal, traditions, lifestyle discrimination)
...learn about the gear you use and why you love it.
...create community and social for myself and my children while traveling.
...help my teen start a business.
...live on a boat, but I have no experience (why we did not hack it, who mentored us, why we loved our instructor, insurance).
...set up a location-independent business (tech, finances, gear, wifi)
...obtain international healthcare (medical tourism, vaccines, best policies)
...transition to a minimalist lifestyle (downsizing, rent or selling the house, what to pack)
...and so much more, ask us and we shall deliver.
Where are we now?
In a marina called Shelter Bay which is in Colon, Panama. Working, working, working to get us, our work, Largo’s school and this boat ready to cross another ocean by mid-April.
To learn more about us, our mission, and our business you can visit us at WorldTowning. To view our most recent group trip offerings head on over to WorldTowningvoyages.com. If you are interested in booking a coaching session to realize your travel dream, schedule it here. If you want to follow the travels of our WorldTowning family, you can find us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
This guidebook is worth its weight in gold! Thank you Jessica for retracing your steps and extracting the lessons for us. I sent this to Stefan right away.