Digital Slomadism on a Dime w/ Becca Siegel #821

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Had a Money.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Joel and I am Matt, and.

Speaker 3 (00:03):
Today we're talking digital nomadism, if that's a word on
a dime with Becca Siegel.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah. So you've heard about being a digital nomad, right.
You've probably seen it in the headlines where they're talking
about it over like at CNN or MSNBC. I feel
like there's always like these future articles like featuring somebody
awesome looking doing something really cool, and you probably thought
to yourself, nobody actually does that wrong because we are
joined by a real life digital nomad, Becca Siegel from

(00:51):
Half Half Travel. And of course Becca is a well
traveled photographer and digital content creator. She's got a unique
approach to travel, blogging, and remote work that we're going
to spend a lot of time discussing today. She has
contributed her travel expertise to various publications like USA Today,
Huffington Post, and her and her husband have been featured
in the Oprah magazine, Lonely Planet, Travel and Leisure, lots

(01:14):
of other places. And today we're really excited to talk
about the ins and outs of being a digital nomad,
how to go about doing it, how to find that
flexible job that remote work. But then in addition to that,
we're going to hopefully talk about like choosing where to
go and even traveling with a baby. Maybe we'll have
time to get to that as well. But Becca, thank

(01:35):
you so much for joining us today on the podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Thank you guys so much for having me.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
As you know, I am a huge how to money
fan and being here is just super cool for me.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
So thanks for having me today.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, I was telling you before we start recording, most
guests are like, I don't even know who you guys are,
but I joined you because you asked. But yeah, the
fact that you actually listen is awesome, So thank you
for that.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Like, honestly, that's what was so cool about podcasts at
least our show is. I mean the fact that like
one episode we can we can talk with an editor
at a highly esteemed publication whose work we've been following
for years, and the next week we're able to talk
to somebody that we would not have otherwise known if
it wasn't for the podcast because she listens to us.
It is so cool. Such a I don't know, accessible medium.

(02:17):
It's small one of the many reasons I like podcasting.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, no doubt, Okay, The first question we have to
get to with you, Becca, as you know, is what's
your craft beer equivalent?

Speaker 1 (02:25):
What are you.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Spending money on cheap? Answer will be trappable. What are
you spending money on proactively in the here and now
while you're also doing the smart thing, you're saving and
investing for your future.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
So I thought long and hard about this, and I
thought I would mention flights, but that has been said
a lot of episodes recently on your show.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
So I said, I have to be different.

Speaker 5 (02:42):
I think that my craft beer equivalent is shelter, and
that is because I have spent a lot of my
life in high cost of living areas. And while many
people in the country might think, hmm, that's not for me.
I want my money to go to other places, you know,
like whatever they else, whatever else they enjoy in life.
For me, living in places like New York City and
like Metro New Jersey right near Manhattan has been really

(03:06):
important and has added value to my life.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
So that is somewhere that I put a lot of value.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Is that because of like proximity to cool stuff or conveniences.
The what's the main reason you're willing to spend more
on shelter than most folks.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
I might be biased, but having been born in New
York City and having spent a lot of my twenties
and thirties living there, it is the greatest city in
the world. Sorry, Atlanta, but I think there's just a
lot to be said about being in the biggest city
like in the country, with all of the work opportunities there,
the culture, and then of course, as we were saying

(03:41):
before we started recording, there are three major airports in
New York City that you can't really beat if you
want to be leaving New York City. Even living in
New Jersey, you know, I still get my pick of
those three. So that's really cool for just you know,
having a big array of flights to choose from when
you want to get away.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
That's right, And we want to hear about your history
because from what I understand, you met your husband Dan
at a craft beer bar, which is something that we
love to hear. Can you can you kind of share
your story how y'all met and kind of how that
led to the company, the site that y'all found it together.

Speaker 5 (04:15):
Yeah, our story is a bit of a unique one.
So we met actually a very run of the Millway.
We met on a social dating app on our phones
in late twenty fifteen.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
So we met and we our first date was at
this craft beer bar.

Speaker 5 (04:31):
That no longer exists, I don't think, but it's called
or It was called Upright brew House in the West
Village in Manhattan, and at the time it was a great.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
Place, very cool.

Speaker 5 (04:40):
So we met and within a few of our first dates,
Dan said, you know, I'm really interested in traveling. I
haven't done that much of it, and I want to
go away for a year on this digital nomad like
program I found where you can work and travel travel
the world with a group of seventy five people and
take your job with you. And I said, that sounds amazing.
You know, you should totally do that.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
And this was before we.

Speaker 5 (05:01):
Started seriously dating and realized that that might cause us
to date long distance. But I said, you know, a
big part of me is that I spent two and
a half years living in East Asia in my twenties.
I studied abroad in Hong Kong, and then I worked
abroad in Shanghai for two years twenty ten to twenty twelve,
and a lot of it, you know, shaped like who
I am as a traveler who I am as a

(05:21):
person a professional, and so Dan and I kept dating,
and then eventually in May twenty sixteen, he left for
twelve months to go to twelve cities around the world
working remotely. He took his New York City job with him.
He's a web developer, and during that time we were
dating long distance, and that's when we started the Instagram,

(05:42):
which if you check out our Instagram, which is half
half travel spelled just like that. We have two sides
of photos that pair together different things from usually two
very different places. And so that was like the project
that we started, and unbeknownst to us, we actually got found,
you know, as we gained a little a little bit
of traction on Instagram, we wound up in Oprah magazine,

(06:03):
which was really surprising but very cool.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
I'm sure your mom was impressed.

Speaker 5 (06:07):
My mom was blown away. There was very cool stuff
that happened to us. Around that time. We were in
Travel and Leisure and Cosmo and Conde Nast Traveler and
Business Insider, and around the world. Actually we started getting
featured in Japan and Taiwan and Spain, and we were
in the news kind of everywhere for a little bit

(06:27):
of time in like twenty seventeen, and from there we said,
you know, we kind of created like an audience, kind
of by mistake, but we love this because Dan loves
taking photos and he's a web developer, and I love
writing and I enjoy social media, and so we put
all that together and we said, let's start like a
travel blog. You know, people do that and they share
tips about where they've been, and they shared travel destination

(06:48):
guides and they share travel advice. And so we started
doing that and we were both working full time for
companies in New York, and we never meant for it
to become more than a hobby, but it kind of
just goes to show that when you put your mind
and your effort and a lot of your creativity into something,
it becomes bigger than.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
You could have ever imagined.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
So now we're reaching millions of viewers on half half
travel dot com, where we share everything from you know,
what we're packing, to guides to places we've been to
nowadays how to travel with a baby. And we also
share a lot about remote work and how we've done
it while traveling, and how to be a nomad, and
you know, things just kind of unfolded from there, and
so Dan and I got married in twenty twenty and

(07:30):
then again in twenty twenty one because during the pandemic
you got to have three weddings and they're both very tiny.
And then we had our first child at the end
of twenty twenty two, so she's sixteen months and now
we all travel as a family.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah. No, that's so cool, and like the way it started.
I think if it is stitching.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Your love together from abroad, you know the photos, it's like,
that's just a cool way you're apart. This is a
way to kind of have a shared endeavor and continue
to communicate and create something. It's like it was like
your first baby almost.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, it was well.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Okay to talk to us specifically, maybe about Dan's first
stint remote traveling. He did the twelve month thing. He
did it with through a company called Remote Year. Is
that right, Yeah, tell us more about that program totally.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
Remote Year still exists.

Speaker 5 (08:13):
Anyone can do it as long as you have a
remote job. So Dan did it back when the standard
offering was a twelve month program. He got to go
to twelve cities around the world in Europe, South America,
and Mexico, which is in Central America, and he also
spent a month in Morocco, which is in Africa.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Of course.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
And during that time, I was living and working in
New York. Like my life hadn't changed, except I had
a long distance boyfriend in twenty sixteen and seventeen and
I got to visit him. So in those twelve months
we only saw each other five times, but in those
in four of those five times, I was visiting him
in Spain, Columbia, Portugal, and Argentina, Buenos Aires and Corduba.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
So that was super cool.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Remote Year versu kind of DIY digital nomadism. What is
it the remote year off, I guess, versus kind of
trying to do your own thing, like just booking your
own Airbnb or just kind of deciding on your own destination.
What is it that an organization like Remote Year has
to offer.

Speaker 5 (09:12):
Yeah, this is the perfect question, and it's the perfect
segue into the fact that when Dan and I, So
I should backtrack a little bit. When Dan got back
from a remote year, you know, of course, it was
great and we got back together and we moved into
our first Brooklyn apartment together and everything was nice. Then
a few months later, he was like, you know, we
should really do that type of thing together. And I
was like, no, that's crazy, Like my job is in
New York and I live in New York and you

(09:34):
can't take me out of New York even though I
love to travel.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
And he was like, no, I mean we could really
make it work.

Speaker 5 (09:39):
Quit your job and I was like no, Dan, like
that's ridiculous. We need money and like, you know, we
need to have careers, and he was like, I'll.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Quit my job too. I was like, no, this is
getting out of hand.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Eventually, Dan and I negotiated with each other and he
was like, you don't even like your job, and I
was like I know, but like you know, life, we
both the same kind of week, put in now notices
with our jobs in New York, and we negotiated with
those jobs to let us go part time and remote,
which in twenty eighteen was kind of wild because if
you think about it, the pandemic and COVID made everyone remote,

(10:12):
but before then people didn't really like work remotely, kind
of just like on a whim, like you had to
really be asking for it or it had to happen
to you. And so in June twenty eighteen, we left
on a one way ticket for Europe. We were in
the Netherlands, Portugal, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and
then back to Spain, working from our laptops kind of

(10:34):
like on our own hours and making it work. So
then we went to Latin America. And this is where
I'll answer the question because I know this has been
really long winded, But in Latin America we did four
months with Remote Year and we joined a smaller program
of four months. But the question was what's the difference
between doing this type of thing, this type of remote
work with a group, either on your own versus with

(10:54):
a program. And the difference is actually pretty big. Because
I will detail this by saying when we were in
and I forgot we went to Ireland. We went to
Ireland too. When we were in Ireland, we were kind
of just like, you know, let's try to work from
our Arabian b and then we were like, oh, it's
not so comfortable. Okay, let's go to a Starbucks. Uh,
you know, the espresso machine is really noisy. Okay, we
have to move again. We didn't have a coworking space,

(11:15):
which is really.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
What you need.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
If you kind of want to spend like a regular
business day working somewhere with all the comforts of an office,
it's kind of ironic that you are going somewhere else
just to like be in another office environment. But at
the end of the day, working from a dining room
table in a chair that's not ergonomic is going to
break your back and strain your neck. So it's kind
of like humans were meant for offices in a very

(11:36):
sad So the difference between us going about on our
own versus going with a group where you're paying for,
you know, everything to be arranged for you, meaning the
co working space has been vetted, the flights have been booked,
your accommodation has been chosen, is kind of like, okay, well,
I don't get to choose these things.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
But time is money, and so we spent so much time.

Speaker 5 (11:59):
Figure out how we were going to get from Taiwan
to Vietnam and which Airbnb we were going to book
in Taipei. And that's a story of its own because
we spent we spent time doing that. But whereas if
you are signing up for like a group travel trip,
and there's so many of those now that you can
do with remote work and remote years just one of them.
There's quite a few others. All of those types of
chores and tasks are completed for you by someone.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Else, so they handle a lot of the travel arrangements,
they handle the co working spaces.

Speaker 5 (12:29):
Or turnkey right, and it's all been vetted, so you
don't have to do that research and you don't have
to make mistakes either, like you.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
Don't have to pick a coworking space that closes. I
don't know.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Just as an example, in Vietnam, we were actually working
some eastern hours, so we were working like nine pm
to two am, and if you wanted to be going
to a co working space, we actually didn't, but we
knew people who were.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
You would need a.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
Place that was open twenty four hours if you needed
to talk to your boss.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
In New York or in LA or anything like that.

Speaker 5 (12:55):
So there are a lot of considerations to have based
on the demands of your job.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Right, So that was back in twenty eighteen. Do you
feel that things have gotten better when it comes to
being a digital nomad just given the pandemic, given the
fact that it's become something that's more popular.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
I think it's gotten better.

Speaker 5 (13:09):
Yeah, and I say that confidently because even if you
look on Airbnb nowadays and hotels also, they will like
kind of boast about the fact that they have a spot.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
For remote work.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
Like I've looked at Airbnb listings, and you know, you
can choose one you can filter by has a desk
space for you know, sitting for a few hours getting
work done. A lot of airbnbs also, because we were
recently looking for I guess airbnbs in either Mexico or Columbia.
A lot of airbnb hosts will even show a screenshot
of their internet speed or they'll say that they have

(13:39):
high high speed Internet, and they'll even quote you on
what kind of carrier they have.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
So it's kind of like the.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
World is gearing a bit more toward the remote working
professional and how that person can keep traveling and keep
having the same type of confidence that they'll be able
to have a ergonomic and fast Wi Fi workspace where.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
It makes sense.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
So, Okay, we all see the cool picks from the
excursions that anybody who's traveling, but it's even digital nomads,
right we see, Oh on this trail today, Look how
beautiful the sunset is which is awesome, But you're still
working too, like you just acknowledged, so like that makes
funding those excursions possible, being able to work during the day.
But can you give us a peek inside of the

(14:20):
daily life of a digital nomad Monday through Friday's one thing?
Like weekends, are you jet setting for other locations? I mean, yeah,
what's a typical week look?

Speaker 6 (14:28):
Like?

Speaker 5 (14:28):
What comes to mind is like two pretty different nomad
experiences we've had. So we had like the ten months
of traveling and working remotely, and four of those months
were doing it with a group and having.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
A lot more structure actually, because we did have a.

Speaker 5 (14:43):
Co working space every single day of those four months
with remote year in Latin America, and the other times
I don't know if we actually spent so much time
renting out our own co working spaces on our own
just me and Dan kind of like rumping around the
world and figuring out. We went to a lot of cafes,
and if we had to take a meeting, sometimes we
did it from our accommodation, which sometimes was a hostile
private and sometimes was an airbnb, And we might have

(15:05):
stayed in some hotels too.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
But what I'm thinking of Is.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
In twenty twenty two, we spent a month in married
on Mexico, which I recommend for anyone who loves hot weather,
because this is like the hottest place in Mexico.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Like it is just so hot you like the sweat, Yeah,
this place is for you.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
The week we got there was a little after Christmas,
and it was like ninety six degrees.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
That's really hot.

Speaker 5 (15:25):
Wow, Like yeah, that's like sweat your face off, get
me inside type of hot. And then we were there
for all of January and it got a little better.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
It was like mid eighties.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
Some days were in the seventies and that people were
freaking out and thought it was winter.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
Oh, very laughable for us. But there.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
So we traveled completely on our own to Marrida. We
were there for about four weeks, and we we bought
like day passes or a month pass to a coworking
space there. That was really awesome. And so what I'm
what I was saying is at that time we were
both working totally full time. The website was, you know,
a nights and weekends thing. But I was working for
a tech startup in New York and Dan was still

(16:00):
working for the company. He had been with prior years,
but like I needed to work nine to five and
he pretty much did too.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
So our daily life and our you know, what we.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
Could expect day to day was I actually would walk
sometimes to the corking spots alone if I had like
earlier meetings than Dan did, and we would go to
a phone booth take those meetings. We would sit at
these long tables like hot desks.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
We would make our coffee.

Speaker 5 (16:26):
I would dip out for lunch and maybe pick something
up or bring something from home. It's kind of like
you almost lead your life at home, but you are
leading it else somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
That's what I was going to say. That doesn't sound
all that different than I mean, the kids in the carpool,
and you know, a couple of other things. But it
doesn't sound all that different than like Joel and I
showing up at at our little carriage house, our little
clubhouse here, going to get coffee, coming back and doing
the podcast.

Speaker 5 (16:50):
I think it depends how much work we would have
on our plates. And then sometimes in those four weeks
in Maridith, and this was only two years ago, we
would take off like a Friday, and I'd be like,
I want to go see Mayan Ruins would go do that,
and that's kind of where things are a little different,
or like, we really should go to the beach. We've
been working really hard and we deserve a beach day,
so we would take an uber out to the coast
from where we were staying.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Okay, it sounds awesome. You're talking about, Hey, beach day boom,
Like all of a sudden you're on like some beautiful
beach that you know you've only seen pictures of a
national geographic that you get to hang out at. And
otherwise you're working generating income, which is a good aspect
of making this, I guess sustainable. But like, what are
the biggest pain points of being abroad.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
For so long?

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Like is it the financial aspect of it that's not
quite as streamline as and as efficient as maybe I
don't know, maybe not New York City, but maybe a
more reasonable cost of living area or talk to me
about community, because I guess that's a big part of
Joel and my our lives here where we live is
just the community that we're trying to build up around us.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I'm curious what you struggled.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
With the most.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
Yeah, Okay, so a few different things to pick apart here. So,
first of all, from the financial aspect, going abroad to
do work and work remotely really depends if you have
done what Dan and I did the first time, which
was quit our jobs and take them back part time
in remotely, which you know, by working part time, we
weren't generating the full time salaries that we had been
taking home.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
Just days before we left.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
However, the second time, when I'm talking about we went
to Mexico for a month, you know, a year and
a half after we got back from like the ten
month trip, is we both were making our New York salaries.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
We were just in Mexico.

Speaker 5 (18:25):
However, once you're living in New York, paying New York
City rent, working full time, and just going on vacation
to get out for a month, we were paying rent
on top of the cost of the trip.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
So I think what I'm getting.

Speaker 5 (18:38):
At here is if you are already you know, paying
your mortgage or paying rent somewhere, and you're leaving on
top of that, you have to be prepared for kind
of the costs piling up. However, if you are either
maybe you have a free living situation, maybe you live
with family, maybe you actually don't, you know, have a
home and you just pay for wherever you're living. And
I know people who actually in our like remote year community.

(19:01):
We know other people who are full time geographic arbitrageers,
like full time digital emads. They do not have homes.
They just they'll go to Mexico for three months, They'll
go to Morocco for three months.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
You know that.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
Then home is wherever your WiFi connects automatically.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
That's what people say. I don't know if you've heard
that before.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
It seems like a digital nomadism.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
I would love to, you know, I'm sure people have
it like tattooed on their arms and stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, yeah, I guess crossed it. I guess it's crossed it.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
So what you're asking about the financial aspect is are
you paying two rents at one time or you know,
are you out and about and you don't have any
strings attached back home.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
That's what I'm getting at.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
And then for the community that you asked about, so
I think a big plus of if you want to
go and work remotely, and you want to go for
months at a time and you want to never look back,
and you don't want to do it, alone going with
a program like Remote Year or Wi Fi Tribe or
Hacker Paradise. You can look all these up online, but
going with a program like that automatically buys you into

(20:03):
the community of people who I don't want to say
are like you, but are different from you at the
same time. And I think one of the biggest aspects
is you're meeting people who you never would have met
at home because they're from all over the country and
all over the world, and the one thing you have
in common is that you are all working remotely, hopefully
full time, hopefully on somewhat of the same schedule, and
you get to all socialize whenever you're not in your
coaking space working on your work. When we did the

(20:25):
same type of digital med travel on our own.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
It was lacking in the community aspect.

Speaker 5 (20:30):
I mean when I keep mentioning Taiwan because I love
it there so much, But when we went there, I
was lucky enough to meet up with a friend from
high school and meet up with a friend of the family,
and we actually even met up with someone we met
in Columbia, which was totally wild and at a house party,
like you really never know what can happen but we
didn't have, like, you know, a group of friends, or
we also weren't there long enough to meet those types

(20:51):
of people who we could trust in form relationships with
and you know, share our lives with and stuff, because
at the end of the day, we had flights out
back home.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
So we've done it both ways.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
And I'm a very community oriented person, which is why
I'm so happy with where we've moved recently, and it
is why I was so happy in New York for
so many years, you know, as a young couple, just
like with all these friends from all these.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
Different parts of my life.

Speaker 5 (21:14):
Community is very important to us, and I think if
someone is looking for community, you're not going to really
get that by doing the whole thing like hodgepodge on
your own.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Gotcha, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
That's yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
Another plus for a program like that, right, just making
it a little more seamless, and also just helping connect
you to other people who are in a similar phase
of life, wants some similar things. All Right, We've got
more questions to get to with you, Becca, and specifically
you want to talk about how you decide where what
destinations you're going to go to and wyte to travel
for less. We'll get to some questions on that front
right after this.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
We are back for the break, talking with Becka s.
Siegel about, like Joel said at the beginning, being a
digital nomad on a dime, and Becca, like you were saying,
a big part of literally being a digital nomad is
the ability to kind of sustain your life essentially just
like you went at home, except for your somewhere else.
And a big part of that is also generating income,
having some revenue and so having a flexible work from

(22:15):
home job seems like it's kind of a kind of
a necessity, and it sounds like that's something that you
and your husband were able to negotiate with the kind.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Of work that y'all had.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
But if folks are working in person and their employer
isn't flexible, though, like where would you suggest that they
start looking for jobs? Because I could see some folks
saying that, oh my gosh, like I hear Beca speak,
she's clearly passionate about this. I love hearing about this
wild house party and Taiwan like, and folks were.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Saying, like, I want that, but my boss said no.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Or they're just in a completely different line of work
and so I think there might be some folks who
are just building something from scratch when it comes to
online work. Do you have any advice for folks there?

Speaker 5 (22:53):
Wow, this is a tough fee honestly, because from time
to time, during you know, these years in New York,
that I was unhappy at my job and which kind
of sparked in to say like.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
You should quit, and I was like, but I don't
want to quit.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
But I finally did quit and went back you know,
remote part time and didn't love it, but.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
Did it because it allowed us to get out and travel.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
It's really kind of like a double edged sword because
if you like what you do and it just won't
let you be remote. I mean, some people are really
passionate about what they do or they're very specialized in something,
and if that's not a remote type of job, you
can get creative by you know, becoming a type of consultant,
maybe on the road, consulting in what it is you
are an expert in. And then aside from that, I

(23:34):
would recommend checking out a lot of the remote job
boards that just exist out there. And I think what
you have to go into it knowing is that a
lot of remote jobs are maybe paying a little bit
less nowadays because so many jobs want to bring people
back into the offices. Like having listened to How to
Money for the last four years, you guys talk so

(23:55):
much about the remote work revolution and being flexible, but
I've also listened to all your episodes on about how
people who don't go into offices aren't getting promoted and
aren't really seen as you know, the people who kind
of mill around the office being present.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
So it's a tough time I think right now. And
I don't know if the.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
World is going to slide back into a remote work revolution.
Maybe this hybrid thing is going to go out of
style in a few years. We might kind of see
that in the future. But there are still a lot
of remote roles out there. It's just that not all
of them are like based in New York or LA
or San Francisco, paying those types of salaries.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
So there are a few sacrifices that may have to be.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Sure, Yeah, the financial sacrifice. Did you see me folks
who are out there doing the odd jobs on some
of the different platforms out there, like I'm thinking of
like up work or fiver or something like that, were like,
did you see many folks who were able to sustain
enough income people living abroad. Yeah, while piecemealing it together
with various projects like that.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
Yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 5 (24:51):
I think it depends and this will lead us definitely
into a great topic. But it depends where in the
world you're really trying to make a living, Because if
you're in Norway, you're going to have to be bringing
in thousands of dollars on upwork.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
But if you're in Thailand you could make it work
with you know, a lot less.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
And it also I think a lot of Originally I
thought a lot of digital nomads are doing engineering work
like web developers, web designers, ux the tech stuff. But
I've met a lot of people who are real designers
and writers and consultants and people who do like things
you've never heard of, just remotely. And I think it's
been inspiring to see new jobs are being invented all

(25:28):
the time. I think that's if someone is getting a
bit down about the fact that they have to go
into an office or you know, something like something like
what I do can't be done remotely, there's always a
first person who's going to say, no, I'm the first
person who does this type of work remotely. You know,
if it can be surgery, not so much. But if
you can become just an expert for hire in what

(25:49):
you do, I think there's probably some potential there.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, you can't do surgery be a zoom yet maybe someday,
let's take a game of no I would game of
operation or something like that. Okay, So you mentioned the
dichotomy between a place like Thailand and Norway. I don't
know if you can get a much starker contrast. You've
avoided Norway to this point for that reason. I've been
to Norway. It's very costly, So I can't imagine there
are many digital nomads making Norway their home over an

(26:13):
extended period of time, because you just gonna run out
of money a lot faster. So how do you decide
on destinations? And the thing is too when with digital nomadism,
airfare prices matter less because you're going on to extended trip,
you're thinking about all the other costs associated with it.
For most novice travelers who are going somewhere for five, six,
seven days, the airfare price is like top of mind. So, yeah,

(26:36):
what's most enticing to you when you're thinking about where
you want to travel.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
Yeah, still to this day, even though we are no
longer going for really big trip.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
Well we've just went on a kind of big trip,
but we're no.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
Longer going on huge you know, open jaw or one
way tickets because we have a kid. We're still hyper
focused on the cost of travel where we're going, and
we think it's more fun to go places where you
don't get bogged down by the cost of accommodation and
eating out and you know, entertainment. We love going places
where you get a huge bang for your buck, you
feel like a king, you feel like nothing can get

(27:08):
in your way of ordering whatever you want on the menu,
and staying in a really great type of accommodation, where
a place where your budget is going so much farther
than it would in Yes, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, places like that.
So some of our favorite trips to date, and not
necessarily where we've done any type of remote work, but
just places we've gone that have had the best price
of travel to name have been me and Maar, Vietnam,

(27:33):
parts of Mexico, parts of Colombia, Sri Lanka, and Lithuania.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
So all over the place.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
You definitely didn't mention London or Paris. What I think
what you said to say true though, like the ability
to have more fun because you're not constantly thinking, oh
my gosh, this better be worth it because we're paying
out the nose for this trip or for this I
don't know, Eiffel Tower tour or something.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
I mean, like a big mac meal in Oslo, like
literally just going to McDonald's. It's like twenty four So
that's going to send you back.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Well, I think so much of what makes a fun
trip are some of the things that you do while
you're there, of course, but like I'm thinking about finding
free things to do and so like where do you
turn when you are trying to figure out what it
is that you want to do, like and where to
go within a new city, within a new location. And
I guess I'm curious too, like how strict are you

(28:22):
when it comes to planning out your travel, Like do
you have a really strict approach to planning out your
day or is it more kind of like flying by
the seat of your pants? But I guess, yeah, I
would love to hear you maybe your overall philosophy of
planning a vacation or a trip like that.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
Yeah, So I used to be in the boat of
like someone who wanted to go somewhere and see literally everything,
and if I didn't.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
See it, I was going to be really disappointed.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
And I'm thinking specifically of the time I went to
Guatemala for my first time with my friend, and we
wanted to see everything, and she was totally down to
see everything, and we spent so much time in transit
that we did see all the things, but we were
and we were on buses every other day when we
could have been all so seeing things. So I think
that was the last time. And I was about twenty
five or twenty six years old on that trip. I

(29:06):
think that was the last time I said, my gosh,
I don't have the energy for this anymore. I have
to figure out, you know, a way to go places
and travel slower. And that's something that's also trending these days,
is called slow travel. Actually, there's been another term developed
called digital slowmadism.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oh, we have to change the title episode.

Speaker 5 (29:26):
That's for people who want to travel slower and spend
more time in a place, getting to know that place,
getting to feel like you live in that place. It's
also better for the environment, and it's less hiring than
really flying around, you know, taking lots of flights, taking
lots of buses. None of this is good for the environment,
and it's not good for anyone's like health either to
be sitting on a bus or trainer even in a

(29:48):
car all the time. But the question was, how do
I really plan my travel? So these days it depends
if we have our daughter with us, but typically we do.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
We recently went to Mediine.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
Columbia with our daughter, and we had a bunch of
things that like we wanted to do in general, Like
the first half of this trip we stayed with friends
and I really just wanted to see the village where
we were staying and it was beautiful, and I loosely
wanted to go do some hikes, but you know, actually
we have a baby. We didn't get around to any
of it. There's nap time, there's meal time, there's early bedtime.
You have to account for either you getting sick, baby

(30:22):
getting sick.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Someone gets sick.

Speaker 5 (30:24):
So we didn't get to do any hiking, but we
got to see a really beautiful village, and then we
spent some time in Mediine, where the only thing on
my agenda was let's drink really good coffee. And I
think at this point in my life, you know, just
being somewhere. And I recently wrote a piece for our
blog about this, called how traveling with the baby has
changed the game. It's not that my expectations are lower,

(30:45):
It's that I'm happy with less, Like I'm happy being
away and enjoying just where I am, you know, just
like appreciating looking around and just not being home, being
somewhere and taking that all in. So even having a
really good cup of coffee at a coffee shop, we're enjoying,
like checks my boxes for the day.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah, I gotcha, So okay.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Used to be like it's got to be an eight
mile hike, or I got to go see three top
things on my list, or but now it's like a
super chill morning at a coffee shop.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
That's what kind of hits the.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Right note, which makes sense, Like as we get older,
the things that we want out of our travel experiences
they morphin, they change, and the things we're comfortable with
morph and change too. Think about I did CouchSurfing back
in the day. One of my good friends met his
wife CouchSurfing in New Orleans. I mean, those are the
kind of experiences I was willing to sign up for
back in the day, sleeping in a tent, all that
kind of stuff. And I'd still be down with a

(31:32):
tent sleep every now and again. But my standards have
changed and I'm not like four seasons are bust, but
like not a like hostele with like eight people I
don't know yet right or currently, So okay, talk to
me about settling down having a baby and what that
does to your wanderlust in general, Like do you feel
like you've dialed back your expectations for how much you
can and want to travel and how often you're willing

(31:54):
to get out there too?

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Wow?

Speaker 5 (31:55):
These are questions that I've actually really mulled over in
the last week since I wrote this pace for our blog.

Speaker 4 (32:02):
About traveling with the baby.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
And when I had the baby, I kind of just
like I stepped back and I was like, oh, my god,
having a kid is so hard. You're caring for a
new person. This baby didn't come with a guidebook, like,
you know, how do we do it?

Speaker 4 (32:15):
No one's sleeping.

Speaker 5 (32:16):
We're figuring out what this baby eats and how they
like to play.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
And I said the fact.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
Of going away again is so overwhelming, you know, how
do we bring all this stuff the baby needs?

Speaker 4 (32:25):
But with time we figured it out.

Speaker 5 (32:26):
And for our first flight with her, we went to
Canada last summer, and you know, everybody survives, it went
well and we had a great time.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
Like taking our baby around. People are like, oh my god, your.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
Baby's so cute, and we're like, hah, we don't now,
but like, yeah, that was the first travel experience we
had that was like far away and really felt like
we were in our element again, you know, like going
through an airport, getting the bags, using our passports, using
our global entry, doing all those things we love that
give us a high. We just had another tiny person
with us. And so now having gone to South America

(32:59):
recently with the baby doing it all again.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
We got her a passport and we got her a
global entry. That's been very exciting for her. And she
has no idea.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
She's gonna have more stamps than me soon, oh I know.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
And plus I'm just picturing a baby's photo, Like don't
you have to like just hold a baby up like
into the frame, Like what does that look like for
a baby's passport photo?

Speaker 5 (33:16):
We have We put her down on a white blanket
and then Dan like photoshop the wrinkles out, and then
it's so funny.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
It's like she's just floating.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
I think eight weeks old in her photo. So even
the last port officials laugh at her though, they're.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Like, that's so funny, so funny.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
Yeah, so yeah. So, I mean now we kind of
got the hang of it again, and now.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
That we've gone to South America with her toddler, we're like,
all right, what's next?

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Nice?

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Okay. So I'm curious because that you are a very
experienced traveler, Like I imagine a whole lot of new
parents who like to travel and they're just packing like
everything but the kitchen sink, because they're like, oh, I
gotta do this, gotta take this, gotta take that, which
is largely probably unnecessary because they probably don't touch half
of the stuff anyway, you just think that you need it.
And so I'm curious, given your experience traveling and with

(33:59):
you being a a fairly new parent, what have you
found and we're going to get very practically here, what
do you think is totally overrated when it comes to that.
Maybe the type of gear that parents are bringing along
when they when they travel, and then what's something that
you think is like, oh my gosh, we would have
died if we did not have X piece of equipment.

(34:20):
I'd love to hear your thoughts there.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Okay, amazing question. I actually I think having traveled, but
we took a bunch of road trips with our daughter
to actually quite a few places. We went to Upstate
New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, where else, Connecticut and New Hampshire
before we went to Canada. So we had a bunch
of time in the car with her, and what we
were able to do was bring literally everything we wanted

(34:41):
because we were like, it'll fit in the car, this
will fit in the car too, and this will fit
in the car too. But then we went to Canada
and we realized the one thing we forgot because she
was spiking a fever was a thermometer. And when you're
in another country that doesn't use fahrenheit, you're gonna wind
up with the Celsius. So now our best souvenir from
that trip is a thermometer in Celsius that every time

(35:03):
we use it, we're like, why are we using this?

Speaker 4 (35:04):
We just have to convert this, you know, with.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
Google and so now we traveled with a thermometer, and
I actually think that's something that adults can trouble with too,
because you never want if you think you have a
fever and you want to, you know, either get more
help or take some medication.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
You never want to have to run out for one.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
So right, so maybe broadly speaking back in that out
just like a certain amount of medicine or healthcare, not healthcare,
but like band aids.

Speaker 4 (35:30):
Yeah, yeah, all the all the time and all types
of stuff. So now that's like top of mine.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
There's websites out there now too that will let you
rent baby stuff. Is it baby quip dot com?

Speaker 1 (35:38):
Maybe that?

Speaker 7 (35:39):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Or we've had how the money listeners? I think who said,
guess what? I listed my baby stuff on there. I'm
making money now renting out my baby gear. So that's
a cool side hustle to make some money too.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Is cool? Right? Yeah, that's super smart.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
So uh, I guess that's a way too to maybe
avoid some of the you know, the hassle of bringing
all the big mountain load of baby stuff with you
is potentially ransome stuff when you're in a specific location too.

Speaker 5 (36:03):
Yeah, and my other hack, because you said, what are
the things that we haven't had to take with us
or that we don't need. My main hack to this
day has been stay in other places where you know
people who have kids or babies.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Because we went to.

Speaker 5 (36:18):
Columbia and we visited my friend Alex, who I actually
met in Shanghai, so you know, everything comes full circle.
She lives in Columbia with her friend Ryan. They also
have an amazing blog about couples fitness. It's called Alex
and Ryan du A Life, and they will probably love
that I gave them a shout.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
But they have a.

Speaker 5 (36:34):
Child eight months older than ours, and so we were
able to go to Columbia without taking a high chair,
a baby club, a baby bath, and they even said
if you need any clothes you can borrow the stuff
are perfect out real, So that really.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Helps you pack light.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
If you're able to visit and stay with people anywhere
you can think of who are going to have that
type of baby.

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, and that makes sense because then you can just
fly spirit or you can go ultra cheap. I mean,
so all that note, Actually, we've got more I guess
maybe general travel questions that we have for you. We'll
get to all that and more, right after this, we're

(37:15):
back to the break. We're still talking digital slowmatism. Yet
we just changed the title of the episode. That one
right there with Becca's Eagle.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Becca, we got a bunch of questions we got to
get to, specifically on the money front and kind of
how you handle and pay for some things when you're
abroad too. First question, what cell phone service do you use?
There's ah, do you use Google Fi? Because that's, in
our estimation, one of the best, you know, cell phone
services for people who travel frequently or using local simcards
in different countries. What's the best route for regular travelers?

Speaker 4 (37:45):
Okay, such a good question.

Speaker 5 (37:46):
I have actually recently changed my answer to this question.
So we used to use Google Fi and that performed
really well for us in all of Latin America, Europe
and East Asia. And however, on our most recent trip,
I tried aer ralloh Ai r Alo and Dan helped
me set that up in my phone. It was very fast,
so as soon as I landed in Colombia, I had

(38:08):
service from an e SIM And I'm gonna be writing
something about that on our website, so check back soon
and I'll be able to provide everyone with how that went.

Speaker 4 (38:16):
And how to do it?

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Okay, cool?

Speaker 3 (38:18):
What makes it better? What makes it because if you've
had a good experience with Google Fi, why is it.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Just is it just a more robust service? Because it's
the it's the local provider.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
I mean, there's not much of a difference except it
is hooking you. They're both hooking you into the local services,
kind of what I call piggybacking.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
But this was very cheap. It was like twelve bucks.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
I got a three dollars discount from another blog, kind
of if you search for Rollo, everyone's giving their own
referral code. I paid twelve dollars for two weeks, and
that just can't be beat.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
I think that is so stinking affordable. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
So it's a few dollars a day.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
We talked about our consternation when we went to Scotland
and we're like, oh, yeah, well maybe we'll like drop
twenty by on the mint Mobile International. And we've just.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Changed their plans since and I think it's gotten better,
but it's still not great.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
Well, you just.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Blow through data faster than you realize. I guess that's
what you realize is how much everything weighs. Once you
start consuming when you're not on Wi Fi because obviously, yeah,
you're not even thinking about it at home. But then
when you are actually looking at the data that you're consuming,
especially abroad, it makes much more of an impact. But uh, Becca,
what is the best way for folks to access cash
when they need it? I'm assuming most of the time

(39:28):
you're using your credit card that way, you're not carrying
around a lot of local currency, but I guess are
there instances where you might need some pesos or whatever
it is they're working for.

Speaker 5 (39:39):
Yeah, I think the more you discover as you travel
is well, first of all, a lot of the world
is digitalizing, but if you are traveling in developing countries
like India, like where else have I been?

Speaker 4 (39:50):
Places like Zambia.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
Maybe not everyone's going to Zambia, but a bunch of
East Asia, bunch of Latin America, cash is still going
to be king And some places might be charging a
credit card fee for use of a credit card there,
and so that might actually not even make it worth
it once you are either getting your cash back or
foreign transaction fees whatever you're running up there. When we're
not using cash though, it's credit all the way for sure.

(40:14):
And what you want to do is, especially if you're
using a new credit card, is make sure before you
leave home that there are going to be no foreign
transaction fees. Because while Dan and I are experienced travelers,
we have gotten new credit cards because we do shuffle
through them and cycle through them. And we once went
away or I think I actually went for my second
time to Guatemala with a new card. We were trying

(40:35):
to work toward, you know, getting the miles or the
points back. And I came back and I had run
up a bunch of foreign transaction fees that I negotiated
with the credit card company and.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
They removed nice.

Speaker 5 (40:45):
But you want to be sure that you're not going
to get those fees in the.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
First placendred percent. And that's that's so much easier to
do now than before. Like for a while, there were
just a handful of credit card credit cards that had
came with zero foreign transaction fee. Now there's a lot
of them, but yes, for sure, because you don't want
to pay three percent more for everything when you're traveling.
How important are credit card rewards points to you today
and when it comes to reducing your out of pocket

(41:10):
travel costs? Because clearly the sign of bonuses and then
what you're accruing by just using those credit cards regularly,
they can defray a decent chunk of the cost of
your travels.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
I guess yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
One of our greatest success stories was with the Capital
X Capital one Venture X card, which at the time
we got it was giving away one hundred thousand points
if you got through the I think it might have
been six thousand or maybe even ten thousand dollars spend
in six months if you think about it, and if
you have two users on the account, you can kind
of hit those minimum spends to get all the miles

(41:43):
in the points if you really put your mind to it,
and if you put a bunch of things on credit
that maybe you don't typically do, like if you're able
to put your rent on credit, or really just some
like large house expenses, if you're able to time that correctly,
what we got back was one hundred thousand miles from
hitting that minimum spend, and then we got the three
hundred dollars account credit also, which is part of the
yearly fee, which I think at the time was also

(42:03):
like five fifty but three hundred dollars if it comes
back and then you can use that toward any qualified
travel expense. So I think for us, we use the
points to book an entire two person round trip to
Vancouver for a wedding, and then we used a bunch
of the points left along.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
With the travel credit to book our hotel in Vancouver.

Speaker 5 (42:22):
So we pretty much went to a really high cost
of travel place totally for free.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Let me lead back to like we were talking about
credit cards. Talk to us about the difference between paying
for a purchase when you are abroad somewhere in local
currency versus paying for it in US dollars. I guess,
tell me your experience with buying stuff abroad.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
There's actually this is really good to know, and it's
a really good point you bring up, because so we
were just in Colombia. A lot of times when you're
in a restaurant and they give you, like the credit
card reader to punch out and add your tip, and.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
You have to like sign and hit enter.

Speaker 5 (42:59):
Sometime these machines give you a choice of like would
you like to be charged in local paysos currency or
would you like to be charged in usd If you're
in a hurry and you don't realize you will just
hit USD because you're used to that. But what you
want to do is hit payesos. You want to be
charged in the foreign currency because it will be converted

(43:20):
on your bill at the most optimal rate at the
time of purchase. Typically paying a USD is going to
be a worse deal for you, even though it seems
like a safe thing to do. So everyone should opt
to get charged in foreign currency. And also when you're
exchanging your money. If you're exchanging your money, the best
way to do that is to pull money out of

(43:40):
a local ATM in local currency. And an even better
thing to do is to go with a card from
like Fidelity or Schwab and get all of your foreign
ATM transaction fees rebated to you at.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
The end the morning.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
That's a good point because just getting the money can
sometimes be kind of costly, and some people think, oh,
I'm just to bring like five hundred bucks and I'm
gonna go to the counter at the airport and that's
where I'm gonna exchange. You don't get as good of
an exchange rate. You pay additional fees. It's just a
bad way to get money, and it just cost you
additional dollars that you don't have to spend. So that's
a I think it's a really good point. Okay, Becca,

(44:15):
What have we not covered that we need to cover?
What is it that people need to know about slow
travel saving money on travel that we haven't talked about yet.

Speaker 5 (44:23):
I think I would love to hone in more or
in a final type of way, on the fact that there.

Speaker 6 (44:29):
Are places out there that are not London, Paris and Rome,
and there are just places in the world that are
so cheap that they'll blow your mind in like a
great way where you could have an amazing getaway from
home and you can spend a fraction of what you would.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
In Western Europe.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
And don't get me wrong, I love Western Europe. And
I actually just wrote a piece for our blog called
why I've never been to London, Paris or Rome. Before
everyone gets at me, it's because I've been everywhere else
and so what I would love for people to just
you know, from a financial perspective too, if you can
just take your boundaries a little farther, you can have
so much of a long you can travel longer and

(45:04):
better when you're not bogged down by the costs of
high places or places that have.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
High costs of travel, which makes sense, but like, for instance,
Vietnam is one of the places you mentioned that's like
top of the top of the pile for you. But
a lot of times some of those flights are so
dang expensive. So is there any place that's it's abroad
but it's not as expensive of a ticket, but the
cost of living is crazy low and it allows you
to really travel a lot more on a limited budget.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
So yes, And I'm so glad you asked.

Speaker 5 (45:33):
Because there is a country right next door to us
called Mexico. And if you don't go to resorts, and
I really mean this, if you go past Cancun and
the resort strip, if you go to the city where
we spend a month called Merida, and I guess you
know you guys have so many listeners, the secret is
going to be totally out. Everyone's going to book a
flight to Merida. If people in the United States go
to even just like second I don't want to say

(45:56):
second rate, but like places that don't come up number
one in Google's search, like in Mexico, like Guadalajara, Wahaka,
wherever else, even Mexico City, like you will be amazed
at what your dollar can do for you in places
like this, And I really do mean this, go past
the resorts cool.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I like it a lot of good tips. Becca, Thank
you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
Where can our listeners find out more about you and
your travel excursions?

Speaker 4 (46:23):
Sure? I am totally reachable.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
Anybody can email me at Becca B e Cca at
half half travel dot com and we are half half.

Speaker 7 (46:32):
Travel on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, and of course visit
half half travel dot com for all of our experiences
and personal recommendations in remote work and travel, traveling with
a baby, travel gear, travel advice, and travel destination guys.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Thank you. I think we'll probably end up linking to
a ton of the topics that maybe we just barely
touched on, but if you want like the full ride up,
we'll link to some of those in the show notes
up on the site. Becca, thank you so much for
taking the time to speak with us today.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
Thank you, guys. As you know I'm a number one listener.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
We appreciate it. All right, Maddie, where we traveling next?
That's the uh, that's the question I have for you?

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Now? Do you have the fever?

Speaker 2 (47:10):
You got? The bud because I feel like I do
man like truly, the ability to hear Becca's excitement about travels,
it's obvious that is something that she's really pumped out,
but she's enjoyed doing. The only cure for my fever
is more cow Bell, though I think the cure of
my viewer is is it Mereda or Marita Merida?

Speaker 4 (47:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (47:27):
So it's over there on the Yucatan Peninsula. So I'm
looking forward to looking more into that.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Perhaps it might be too hot for me. I don't know.
We live in Atlanta. We get enough heat. I might
go somewhere a little cooler.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Can we go there?

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Wait?

Speaker 2 (47:38):
She said that they were there in January and it
was still and it's still like in the eighties, and
I felt like a Colt snap. Yeah that does seem
pretty hot. Yeah, don't go.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
In July for my blood.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
But what was your big takeaway?

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (47:49):
So I think my big takeaway was when she talked
about negotiating for part time work or for remote opportunities,
and we we've talked about the trade offs, and she
even mentioned it that you listening to this podcast, she's heard, Yeah,
you're probably gonna make less money. Work from home, and
I think it's a supply and demand thing if you
want to work remotely, unless you're really lucky and your
employer says, no, sure, we love you so much like
you go work from.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Wherever you want.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
We'll pay you the same amount of money. That is
best case scenario. But these are things you can negotiate.
And guess what, if you're willing and able to get
rid of some of your current expenses, the apartment that
you have, maybe you're willing to sell your car and
you don't have those recurring monthly bills, you're not paying
for the insurance on that car as well, you can
maybe afford to take a little bit of a pay
cut and jet set to a cheaper cost of living

(48:30):
location for a little while. But those the kind of
trade offs you're gonna have to make, and it's worth
starting to have that conversation with your boss if this
is something that insters you, if you've kind of gotten
bitten by the bug.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Listening to Becka, yeah, I totally agree. Man. My big
takeaway is going to be that you don't have to
completely diy figure all of this out yourself, because I
think for a lot of folks who are listening again,
you get inspired and then you start looking into it
and you don't know where to start right. And so
I think there's a previous version of not just Matt,
but Joel Enman where we would say, guys, you don't

(49:02):
need these communities. You don't need remote year or Wi
Fi tribe or Hacker Paradise in order to put together
a slomatic life. Just Di Wyatt put it together yourself.
You're going to save so much in fees. You don't
need all of that, but you're not flushing money down
the toilet. There's something that you are receiving from that,
the ability to have the expertise, and these are locations

(49:23):
that are vetted and they know what it is that
remote workers are looking for. There's a whole lot of
value that is provided therefore, you plus the added component
of community, you know, like hearing her talk about how
when they put it a piece of it together themselves,
how they kind of got a little bit lonely. Yeah,
I could totally see that being the case. And especially
if there's a language barrier, Oh my gosh, I think

(49:43):
you could feel really isolated and I could really have
you pining to get back home. Sooner than maybe you're planning.
But if you're surrounded by a bunch of folks who
predominantly speak English and you're all kind of on the
same schedule, I think that could be more than worth
the money. Plus, yeah, it just makes life a little
bit easier. It allows you to focus on the things
that you're good at doing your jobs. That then your
additional time you can spend having fun that's.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
While you're there.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
I think it complete can completely change your experience of
slow travel and digital nomadism. And so if you're like, oh,
I was worried about the logistics. I was worried about
the overwhelm of planning how to do this, it's kind
of cool to have an organization that you know, you
partner with her, and then you pay money. I guess too,
I didn't ask her how much. I'm curious about that
there's a fee. Yeah, that sounds like but like man

(50:25):
to think about, Oh cool, you're planning, help me, help
me plan this out for me, and you're also hooking
me up with a tribe of yes folks who are
doing just the logistics.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
It's also also the community, and I think that can
be more than worth the money.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
But cool.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
All right, let's mention the beer. You and I both
enjoyed a juice party.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
This is a hazy Imperial.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
You have to say it like that when you say
the jew party, hazy Imperial.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I p a.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
This is by fire Maker Brewing. These guys are ruined
here in Atlanta, or at least it was. I think
it started in They're.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Still yeah, yes, okay, So this one, in my mind
tasted like torched oranges.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Oh my gosh it did it remind you of digits
burnt hickory for sure?

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Like a blood orange variety. Did they close? They did?

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Yeah, that was like a brewery not too far from
where we are, and it was an og It was
a good one and it's gone.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Yeah, but this one like a blood orange IPA.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Maybe it's because the dragons on the cover and dragons
breathe fire. But I was just thinking as I was drinking,
and I was like, this tastes like roasted oranges, almost
in IPA form.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Like you're sitting there at a bar, someone's making you
an old fashioned and they got the orange zest and
they kind of squeeze it and light it on fire,
like right, that fragrance that Aroma exactly. Yeah, in my mind,
it's sort of had more of an old school kind
of IPA vibe to it. It's certainly not like a
New England hazy like it says hazy on here, but
it's not like it's not that kind of hazy kind

(51:41):
of like the ones you get from Boston. They're stretching
the truth a little bit by calling themselves a hazy
Imperial IPA. But this was really tasty. Glad that you
and I got to enjoy it here on the podcast. Sure,
but we'll make sure to link to the different resources
that we mentioned that we talked about with Becca where
you can follow along with her and Dan their adventures travels,
especially with a new baby, because it's like a whole

(52:02):
new I bet for folks who follow them way back
in the day, they're probably really excited to see them
like embark on this next sort of journey because it's
almost like you're kind of hitting reset and you're relearning
how to do certain things, and so there's like a
I don't know, I bet there's like a renewed vigor
to what it is that they're doing over at half
half travel dot com. But we'll make sure to link
to that in the show. It's at how to money
dot com.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
No doubt.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
All right, buddy, until next time, Best Friends, houst Friends
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