Unveiling the Appeal of Full-Time Travel

so welcome to no borders with Brian and Carrie and in today's episode what we want to talk about is why moving outside or traveling full term outside of the United States is so appealing yeah and so yeah so some of the topics that we're going to cover is really what probably the biggest one is the affordability yeah we get asked all the time you know how do you guys do it I wish I could do that we hear that all the time well here to tell you you probably can yeah so we'll kind of go into all of those cost savings that we have seen and the difference that we were paying at home uh compared to being out and traveling full-time and then we're also going to touch on medical because that is also another huge question people have um of what we are cost savings because that's that's just kind of a question mark of when you are traveling how do we get medical care what does it cost how do we have medical insurance uh and just kind of how that is all handled right it all ties in together how are you able to afford it considering Medical insurance cost so much money yeah well it doesn't have to yeah and we're going to tell you why and then some of the other things that we're going to discuss is just some of the things that we did to kind of get in that mode of planning to full-time travel that got us to the point that we could then um be in the position that we could afford it yeah how did we decide to do it yeah what led us to this decision and uh you know so here we go yeah so first we are going to first start with kind of how we decided to make that decision what uh what our experience at home was and what we were looking to get by being outside of the states well I think it all started when we went on vacation we went to Portugal and we came back from that experience and the wheels started turning you know how much did that cost us for accommodations how much did the food cost how good was the food right everything included and then we compared it what we were doing in the United States right in our hometown of Bellingham Washington how much money were we spending there and getting less right yeah we really looked at I know we came home from that trip and we really evaluated um what we were spending um and then also I think we just love Portugal so much that we were looking at the options of was it a place that we could just honestly the first start it was just retire to was what we were looking at doing so we kind of had that seven-year plan we were planning quite a ways out um but as we started looking at the cost of living and how much things cost there as far as accommodations and we were at the time we were looking at long-term rentals and we were looking at um what the cost would be for food and just everything you can kind of research all of that online we realized just how this was a possibility we could do this it doesn't have to be seven years from now it can be 5 years from now and then it became 3 years from now and then uh it was it was tomorrow afternoon yeah and that all that all just really kind of came about I think when Co happened um for me that was a time that reality really checked because it reached a point where nobody could travel so it wasn't even if you wanted to travel there was an option to go travel or you just couldn't afford to you didn't have the time off you just literally could not get on an airplane and go anywhere and that feeling to me became um in a sense claustrophobic because I just felt like if I wanted to go I couldn't go and what now if something happens because I mean we're both in a situation we're both 53 our parents are both getting older um and there is going to come a time be it with our parents or kids or something could happen that then potentially would take that opportunity away so I think there was just that feeling we had to take the opportunity if we could and it was certainly a risk well it was a huge risk I even talked to a uh financial advisor friend of mine that advised me uh not to do it I think most Financial most financial advisers would have told me Friend or Foe would have told me not to do it and he said you know what are you going to do when you're 85 90 years old what are you going to do when you're 70 75 years old there's no guarantee I'll make it until I'm 70 75 80 85 years old well there's no guarantee to any of us that we'll make it till tomorrow so I think that there does come that point where you have to kind of weigh I mean you want to be smart about it obviously but at the same time you have to understand that no matter what decisions you make in life there is a risk involved you know I mean if you buy a new house or you whatever I mean there's a risk involved in every decision you make and this was definitely a risk for us but we felt like we had weighed out the choices the options we had really taken a look financially at everything that we possibly could navigate um as far as our fin is what we would be having coming in during retirement um how could we get to the point of retirement to make it work until then uh because we certainly at that time because we do do YouTube but we didn't know if YouTube was going to take off or was going to pay any bills you know so we didn't think uh YouTube would in any way subsidize what we're trying to do in any way um so that was something that we knew we had to start immediately yeah out the door is trying get some type of Revenue going mhm yeah so when we were in the states we had a condo together with that we rented and that was kind of for us it was like we paid um just about it was in between $ 1,7 $1,800 a month for this condo not accounting any of the other bills that came along with having this place and it was a teeny tiny like 850 Square F foot one-bedroom condo in a nice area in town but still just an absolutely ridiculous amount of money to pay we felt um where when we were looking online and looking what we could get elsewhere it was like oh you know so that was that was a huge Factor we knew that as far as rent goes we could find that cheaper elsewhere outside of the country right um but then all the other expenses well and with that rent comes your utilities your uh cable bill um you know anything that you might pay you're I think when the the condo uh we didn't have to pay for internet and water but everything else we we did have to contribute to and so those are all added expenses uh we started looking at our our vehicles our car insurance the amount of gas we put in our car um those expenses cell phone bills we started looking at all that stuff we tried to scale back on those things as much as we could before we're leaving yeah just to see if we could do without right and and we we decided decited we could we could and we were definitely able to be saving some money so that was really an advantage I had always been that way as far as putting money away but with that came so many things that we gave up too you know I mean we would um friends would be going out to dinner and they would invite us out and we would say well we'll meet you afterward for drinks because let's face it going out anywhere uh especially where we live is incredibly expensive to eat out uh and that was something we didn't work into our budget if we wanted to save money at all just even if we were just looking to travel we needed to be saving money our friends actually stopped inviting us to go out cuz they knew we would say no well they would just say do you want to meet for drinks yeah you want to meet for drinks about 8 8:30 we' say that's pushing our bedtime but we will we will meet up with you yes yeah and we would go yeah so I think we did a lot of prep and planning in place to kind of find the things we could cut out and then so as we started to look and so I would say that our budget when we were living in the states each of our budgets was probably around $1800 a month with a car payment and rent and everything because we split everything yeah i' so we were at 3,600 a month yeah at least the low end I'd say on the low end of and that's not including any extras that's not a trip that's not anything going into that extra or eating out for we didn't work in entertainment yeah I would say that it was close to to probably 2,000 each yeah um if you if you start adding all the nickels and the dimes yeah so we were probably in between 36 to 4,000 a month was what our living costs were and so when we started looking at what it would cost us to move outside of the states or to travel full-time um and we were realizing that we we initially went in with a budget that was definitely less than what we're spending now but but not by a lot um we went in initially with a budget of 12,200 $ a month each and we're still similar to that it really depends on our location but at the time when we saw $1,200 a month that just seemed unreal that we could be traveling fulltime and and seeing the world and spending $1,200 which is a just a tiny amount compared to what we were spending compared to what we were spending yeah and we also did also realize that you know we're not going to go experience a vacation um in Portugal we going to be living in Portugal that's what we were thinking of at the time so you know if you're if you're vacationing it is going to cost you more money because you're doing vacation type things we weren't doing vacation type things we were sightseeing yes we may go do a sightseeing paid Excursion if we felt like it was needed but we really did go in with the idea that we're going to live in this environment right so it be the same as living at home just somewhere else where you're occasionally doing something exciting and fun but you're not every day going out and doing what you typically do on a vacation time yeah so yeah I think that we we just definitely found right away that it's like okay this is feasible this is doable um and we started to explore that more and we got into then um we actually started the process where we were going to stay in Portugal and we started that that whole process of getting um permanent residency there and then you had come home from work one day I came up with a great idea well no you came home from work and I said how about we go tomorrow well your idea of slow travel my idea was slow travel right your idea was let's leave in the next four or five months and both great ideas yes by the way actually I think yours was a better idea than mine um because I was unprepared for that um but I immediately said yes let's go for it we weighed out uh the pros and cons of leaving early worst case scenario um and for me it was a it was a 22nd decision it was very quick we both were on board very quickly I think because we had already done the prep and planning process and the talking about it and thinking about it um and then once again being in kind of Weir we were honestly still in the midst of Co it wasn't like we had come out at all um of that and so I think we were just ready to go uh now that the airp it opened again and people could fly um and so yeah we both just gave about 3 months notice to our jobs and we shortly after that left that was it yeah that was it okay so let's let's give some examples of what costs less and how much less I mean we can start with rent that's the obvious one right you know we were paying between 17 and $1800 um for the for the one-bedroom condo um and now we're paying anywhere where depending on where we're at in Vietnam it was $450 a month yeah I think our we were like 425 in Vietnam is was our lowest ever and it was a cool spot it was a it was awesome a cool spot um you know and then in Florence we we'll spend you know 1500 that was 17 1700 so so pretty comparable in Florence um the place was much bigger yeah but um so it depends on where you're at but we knew we could knock off $7 800 a month just and rent alone yeah yeah so we um then some of the other costs so rent we've definitely in general we can save but that is rent is one area so when we first started and we were in Spain and we're heading out and we're super excited to be on the road and we're like we can cut corners on accommodations how much time will we be there we can since we're traveling we won't care where we're living uh we quickly learned that that's not the case that there's there's certain Creature Comforts that we're not willing to do without we always had a wash machine um but we didn't have any outdoor space and we didn't have um a comfortable bed which is hard to come by anyway you know yeah yeah and it's hard to honestly know that in a picture but we've become a little more selective we've been a little more picky about I wouldn't say location we've always done very well with location uh but we've become more picky about really looking at all the features that a place has yeah we've upped our um Budget on rent a few hundred dollars not not astronomical but a few hundred dollars um and we need that outside space yeah we've decided those two things so we have um evolved I guess you would say um along the way so we're not saving as much as we were but we're still saving a lot more than if we were at home yeah and I think that one of the things um you know we were spending like we said we were averaging about our initial Budget on rent was about $900 a month total split between the two of us that's what we're hoping to get at uh and that is what we stayed within in our first three months and then I would say now we try an average around 1200 and when we say average that's over the entire year so uh like we're saying we stayed in Vietnam which was 400 and we stayed like in Thailand and that was 450 in place so um so our average we look to be around 12 00 but boy in Europe you do you do pay a little bit more to get those uh those Comforts that we like to have now another one of the cost savings is um just the simple things like cell phone so at home I think I was paying I think I had gotten my bill down to about 60 or $70 a month but now um now I actually have the eim on my phone um and that was great that's a new edition uh just here short just not long ago and that is averaging that's going to run about1 a month to be able to have um data coverage when we're traveling but boy we went into some places I think Romania was one where we were paying like $4 yeah four5 you know even even in Spain I I believe it was $15 a month um the most we ever saw was Greece which got to $40 a month $45 a month which to us was expensive because of all these other countries we were going to they were so cheap but a cheap policy a very inexpensive policy here the United States is going to run you 60 70 $80 yeah that's if you own your phone with all your extras on all the extras that they like to tack on all the taxes and everything right right so so there's another immediate savings um that uh you know those nickels and dimes they do add up over course of a month they do and we don't have then we also don't have any of those other bills a couple of things that we did keep um is that like we have Netflix and so we do have that you got to have Netflix right you got to have you got to have Netflix we got to do something at night when we're sitting in condo yeah so we do have a couple of those U platforms that we use and um and then we also have you know the things that we were able to eliminate we were able to eliminate not having car insurance and having a car you know but we do take a bus here and there we'll take a train so we have some Transportation cost but it still is minimal compared to what we were both paying for car payments right and for insurance right yeah so I would say that in we've cut so many things off of just all those extras that you know the little stuff at home sure we go out for a beer but just the like going out with friends for beers going out for like we said we didn't really go out to dinner and stuff but just there's ever fails it's like we would have all those extras that we were spending money on of like you're on Amazon oh I need that I need to buy that cuz I need it yeah you didn't you didn't really need it but it's cool that you have it but you didn't really need it you know another expense would be those unexpected expenses that just occur that she weren't prepared for uh new tires brakes um gutters for your house on the roof all those things um we don't have to worry about anym we're pretty I mean we we know every month what's going out the the unexpected would be uh having to take a maybe a flight home emergency flight home things like that if we had to do something that was not planned but otherwise we really have monthly budget under our own control because nobody's coming and saying oh by the way your rent went up we know what our costs are going to be we know what it's going to be there is one unexpected expense that I did have which will lead us into our next topic and that is Insurance yeah Medical Care yeah Medical Care um I had a colonoscopy which was an unexpected expense right and the only reason why I needed one was because a doctor told me that it was time right I was 52 and she said you need to get over there and you need to have it done so I did um but even that ran me far less than it would have in the United States right and that's so kind of on that same subject so that's a concern of people is um traveling outside of the states to what are they going to do about medical care I think it's for so many people it's kind of that great unknown and and honestly for us it was a great unknown too we had no idea what to expect and I remember um our first experience we'll get back onto the whole Colin op and know the other experience we had there but we were both in Portugal and um I absolutely will just add I absolutely detest going to the Dennis probably like 90% of people out there I know love it it's weird it's a good time um but you had um I broke a tooth you broke a tooth I was eating popcorn yeah and then um we so we found a dentist to go to in Portugal and so Brian kind of tested the waters out and we so we go to guinea pig you were the guinea pig and we went and found this dentist and it was like wow this is great I mean it was such a a nice facility way nicer you know than most of the places I've been in the states um and then the and then you booked a cleaning and then I found out how much the cleaning was and so I booked a cleaning and then I up 2 Days Later having my crown fall off so what are the chances but thank you for testing out the denti so I felt comfortable she felt comfortable going in and uh I think uh we each paid $125 $130 something like that each for um I had my tooth fixed and a cleaning and um you had your CR I think they have a flat rate for here's your cleaning cost and here's the treatment cost and that's what it's going to be so um but that was you know I mean we didn't know going into a dentist in Portugal you have this idea in your head for some reason that it's going to be just so I don't know I mean that's an unexpected expense that we had but that same procedure with medical insurance in the United States is going to cost us four times that oh easily yeah so so that's something that we've just come to realize that we are insured globally um but there are certain things that our insurance won't cover yeah but that's okay because it's so inexpensive it comes out of pocket yeah our insurance that we carry um is covers Us for major medical it doesn't cover us for any of those going into the doctor to just for a regular doctor checkup but we knew that that was a choice you can add that on but um we just felt that from our experience now so far it's so affordable to just go in and see a doctor if we need to see them that it's you know there's no reason to add that on so what about a Heth check well it we'll tell you yes we because we each did have a health check quite the health check um in Thailand uh we went in and they have a a whole um well they just have a program that you can go online and you can um we had kind of heard about it so it it's interesting and we wanted to look into it and um so you can you can go online and they have listed all of the different procedures that you can have done so you can have an allart package where you get to pick out what you want done or you can pick out a package like the silver package the gold Platinum package and then you pay accordingly for that but what was so interesting is it was nothing that in my life I've never had the experience where anywhere in the states where you could have this done or at an AFF at the price that we paid at the price we paid and so we went in and it was so cool because uh you didn't even have to make an appointment we just showed up that day we go into the hospital that's where they do it at um and it's just first come first serve basically uh they take you into a room and they sat us down and they went over uh what we would like done we each went in separately and figured out what we wanted in what package and then they give you the price and then you basically have this little clipboard that you carried around and you went from place to place to place to place and they did all the treatments but I mean it included everything well I mean like I said we got kind of the lower end package so I got I got the uh the silver pack I think I got the middle package you got the low package but then you you did some add-ons right so cuz there were specific things that you wanted done and I just uh I wanted just the package and I went in and I got an ultrasound I got my uh my veins tested I got um you know they do an EKG EKG everything that I need they did lung x-rays they do a stach ultrasound um they really did a check of everything yeah and then for me um that was what I added on is I wanted a mamogram but I wanted a different kind of a mamogram added on so I wanted two different kinds and uh so my package with add-ons was $240 and yours was was mine was 280 I think the one thing they didn't check was my memory so I am not sure but I think it was about $280 that' be great if there was so cool yeah I'm sure there's something that might be really expensive though but but yeah and we got it all done in a day so in the morning session you have all these tests done about 10 12 different tests your blood tests all kinds of things you leave for about 2 or three hours come back and you meet with a doctor and they go over all your results yeah now they went over car's first we went in together very nice doctor very nice doctor and they go through they don't just look at your results and then kind of go oh you're good to go you know maybe look at this she goes through through every single test and tells you where you need to kind of work on things well she went through every one of car's tests and said yeah you're good to go then she went through my tests and before she started talking to me before she even really opened my folder she looked at me and kind of gave me the old uh the evil eye didn't she tell you something about the American the American diet Brian you need to get off the American diet now I I think I'm I'm I'm height weight proportionate I'm I'm naturally thin that doesn't mean I I always eat right and she could tell through my tests so she gave me the results and nothing nothing uh um you know watch your sugar intake and stop drinking beer were her two uh two two concerns yeah and then her recommendation uh because of my age was the colonoscopy and I reluctantly uh walked across the street when we were done scheduled an appointment uh they wanted to get me in 2 days from that day and I I was like whoa hang on you need to give me some time to prepare for this well and literally you had to PR mentally prepare for it and physically prepare for it drink the yummy juice so uh three days uh after you know 3 days later uh I went in all ready to go if you know what I mean and uh walked out of there with the clean bill of health fortunately I don't have to go back for another 10 years yeah but uh and that's what cost me $800 now if I had done that in the United States with my medical insurance through my work it probably would have been free right maybe a CO so I did kind of mess up there I probably should have gone and done that uh while I was at home uh working my job um but I didn't uh but with that being said I did look up how much it would cost in the United States without insurance and it ranges depending on where you live in the country between $2500 and $4,500 so $800 seemed like a bargain yeah yeah so I mean Medical in general The Experience we've had and I've also seen a dentist in turkey and we're going to be heading back and and finishing up my procedure there um so far I'd have to say that our experience has been wonderful um we've had zero concern level whatsoever um and it really just kind of made us feel like wherever we traveled if we do have to go into a clinic or into a doctor's office we don't have any concerns of that yeah we'll be taken care of now we have never been to a country that the local person says yes our medical insurance is really good there's no problems that's never been said no there's always an issue if you're from the UK there's something if you're from Canada you know there's long waights if you're from the United States you know will your medical insurance cover this if not how much is going to cost if they do cover it how much of it are they going to cover right I I actually went to the doctor with a shoulder injury and the doctor talked to me looked at me poked around my shoulder and said I want to get you in for an MRI and I said great let's get this taken care of so that co-pay was $35 now I've got a going for an MRI that's going to cost me $50 it's a specialist I don't have to pay for the MRI because I've got this terrific health insurance my doctor calls me a week later and says your your health insurance company has denied your MRI they don't think you need one okay so I called my insurance company and asked them how this could be and they said well they have a doctor on staff and their doctor does not believe that you need an MRI yeah and I go how would that doctor know if they've never met me if they've never they didn't know what I look like no they just look they just look at the chart and decided I didn't need it they thought that maybe I need Physical Therapy first or I needed to stretch MH stretching is not going to work I do stretch um So Physical Therapy I asked the lady now you can see my record there when was the last time I was at the doctor before recently well it's it's been about 5 years so you've gotten 5 years worth of payments totaling who knows how much I'm not sure what my company paid but we're talking probably near $1,000 a month MH and for a $1,500 MRI I get denied and she said yes it's so frustrating yeah so I mean in general our experience has been that we knew that if we wanted to walk outside of this out if we wanted to go anywhere outside of the country and we needed medical care we needed anything done um that we could just walk in and get an appointment probably to get that we we felt pretty confident that any treatment that we needed we would be able to find and there would be good good care and good care in in the countries that we have visited up to this point which have been uh up thirds of 20 20 different countries right now we have not been to the UK we've not been to France we've not needed Healthcare in Canada so we do understand that there are other countries that that may be in the same uh situation we are here in the US we're just telling you that we have been to places where we walk in same day we get outstanding care for a tenth of the cost right and the plac is the one thing I would say because we you know when we do our videos on YouTube and we have locals watch from those countries and they will come in and say that's not their experience now as a foreigner coming in we're not going going to the public hospitals usually and the public clinics you're usually going to a private place so I will say that so we like our place that we went in Thailand we could have chosen to go to the public hospital but it was a little bit more and you went to the private one and it was just nicer so we did choose to do that so I would kind of throw that in there that we also understand that in the countries that we're visiting the locals may not get the same level of care as a tourist coming in sometimes because we are able to go and just pay out of pocket for for private care right exactly so now staying on that same topic of medical um one of the questions we get a lot is about prescription meds and how do we fill prescriptions and you know our experience so far has been anything that we've needed to walk into a pharmacy and get um of course they've never nothing's been a heavy prescription or anything um you do have an inhaler yes but before we go on to inhaler like any other thing that we've needed as far as that is at a pharmacy they just get it for you and you buy it and it's usually I mean I don't I I I say fraction of the cost a lot but I don't even know how to even compare it because it's way less than we would even pay for a co-pay here right I I can compare it m because of my inhalers now in the United States I would get an inhaler it's a monthly inhaler uh twice a day once in the morning once at night that would cost me $45 a month co-pay MH I don't know how much they cost $250 is is what somebody at one point told me um I don't have that covered anywhere else I go in the world it's out of pocket and it's ranged from $5 to $17 out of pocket now only one time has been the same company same brand the rest of the times it's always been generic but the same medication yeah and I'm getting now now $5 in Turkey mhm for an inhaler um that has more pumps than my old one yeah so you were so excited when you got the one for $5 iny that you went out and got another one and then the next day you went and got two more well they'd only sell you two at a time but there's pharmacies all over the place yeah they're like on every block yeah so I I bought an extra duffel bag and now I've got a duffel bag full of uh inhalers you got four I don't know if we could have got through the airport with with a double you got to be careful you do have to be careful with your prescription meds uh and that is one thing about when you are traveling make sure you carry your prescription with your medications or at least the bottle that has all the information on it don't have don't ever pour your prescriptions into a bag or something like that or even honestly just your like Tylenol and stuff like that it should be in the bottle keep in the bottle security likes that and you know to take it a step further if you are on um heart medication or some serious types of medication um have a doctor's prescription um keep them in the same containers that car was just saying um and see if you can get a six-month Supply or a f Monon Supply or how long you're going to be gone for yeah until you come back next would probably be your best bet right I mean at least have a couple months supply the amount of time you're going to be gone or at least to cover you for a while while you're gone so that then you can go navigate do you need to see a doctor to get a new prescription will they just take your prescription at the pharmacy because the thing is is that even with your inhaler we don't know each country we go to because every country is going to have its own rules right you know so I mean when you were in ctia and they required you to have a they wanted to see the actual prescription on the box that the that it came in and luckily you had that um but that ended up not even really being needed that much and so you know every place that we go to we never know for sure we never know for sure and that's for something as simple as an inhaler if I didn't have an inhaler I could live without it m if you have something more serious yeah talk to your doctor well yeah and do that research beforehand okay so that's how we save money on medical now what other ways are we saving money yeah so one of the ways that we for sure saved money and we knew this going in was that we stay in a location uh for 28 days at least and there's a reason behind that is that when you um for instance on Airbnb and you try and book a place for 28 days very often that place is almost half the price because you are booking it for a month uh you get a significant savings especially if it's offseason uh and so there and but that's not just the only thing I mean there's just a lot of benefits to moving slower and that's something we're going to kind of go into in our next episode about slow travel and why why we slow travel and all the benefits that come with it yeah there are a lot of benefits to it um but yeah you know the slow travel um it's also a lifestyle you know it's much more relaxing um to be in one place for a month and really take in the community that you're staying in for that month right okay now in every episode we're going to have a question and answer probably multiple questions and multiple answers yeah we get ask a lot of questions on YouTube we try and get to all of them we do get to all of them we also thought it would be a good idea to answer some of them here because these questions come up a lot well and their questions I mean when we answer one person's question because they asked it to us on YouTube and right in a video description or a video um there's no guarantee that everybody goes through and reads those so we're hoping this might answer some of those questions uh to everybody right I hit a wider audience yeah right so the first question that we get quite often is how do you decide on where to go next okay so yeah and when we are deciding where to go next there's actually a lot of a lot of things that go into that um so it's not just a quick process at all um where I think that if you're just um at home and you're like we want to go on vacation where should place be cool to go to yeah and then you just start planning right but for us it's like there's so many things that have to line up and so we usually have ideas of places we want to go but when we land on the ground somewhere it needs to be a place where up until now it needed to be a place that we could be for 5 months so not in that necessarily in that exact location but that we weren't taking another L haul fly Right Flight in that five months to get somewhere else um because that keeps us in our budget right keeps us in our budget planes and trains right no no planes trains and buses right yes that's our goal goal sometimes it's a little Hopper flight that they're usually in expense as soon as at least we're to the main area and then we look at so first we're looking at the cost of what it would cost us to get there that's a huge deciding factor because we could find a place there have been times where uh just recently we were looking and like let's go to buus Aras um because that's part of our 2024 plans to fly to we're going to go to Mexico so we look to go to buus Aries and just to get to buus Aries and then to get back home cuz we'd only be there for a month um it was going to run us each around $900 to $1,000 just in flight costs well that's absolutely ridiculous and blows our budget so that was out the window right so our first deciding factor is how much it's going to cost us to get there and then soon as it seems feasible and I've found good airfare and we've kind of found like okay that's affordable then we start looking into um what kind of availability is there for the housing that we would like you know and we could get there but are we going to be able to get the kind of condo that we're going to be happy in for a month's time and so say we can find the condo it's a perfect fit then the next step is is that I check the cost of living in that location so uh the general cost of living is like what's the grocery situation like what's the have we always look at what a beer is going to cost how much is a beer going to cost how much is a beer in the grocery store going to cost and how much is a beer uh to go out and have a beer because that's really kind of our fun that we like to go do is go and have a beer so if it's out of range which we've definitely gone to places that's out of range but so there's so many multiple steps to finding figuring out what where we're going to travel to next and just how how we line it all up okay so the next part to this two-part question since there's so much that goes into it how far in advance do you start planning well I mean we start planning so we just did a video on our 2024 and so we have a general idea of what our 2024 is going to look like um and we already start looking you know like I said um when we were talking talking about Mexico which isn't until next fall and we were talking about buies and so I immediately look and I'm like okay well what would it cost us to go to there to there and so that already Nix made that out so if you look at it in that aspect you're starting you know eight months out sometimes a year out as far as just getting an idea of just kind of getting the wheels turning on the path that you're going to take now we're not booking anything nothing's booked nothing's booked no um as a matter of fact we've only got two places booked three three now MH we have our place in so we have our place in Turkey you think I would know this right we have our place in Turkey booked uh in fedia and then we've got our place in roads and a place in Greece or in so cre was just done uh yesterday that's why that's why I I don't remember you know back to that medical thing they don't they don't check the memory so I didn't get the uh the platum pack short-term memory I think I got I don't know what I have it's one or the other I can't remember yeah so we did but there is also R there's rhyme and reason to behind why we booked those two places um I mean it's pretty obvious it's Greece and we will be heading into the spring months when that's when tourist season starts escalating upward yeah so you do need to keep in mind time of year um certain times of year are less busy so we can kind of push those off a little bit yes so I would say that the plan starts well in advance as far as our year plan and then as far as our our next five months out we start to book those places up um if I see that availability of places is starting to dwindle away um I'll kind of heart places on Airbnb and if I see oh that place is gone that place is gone then we know it's time we got to jump on something but we try we really try to push out planning process as far like booking process as far as possible because we really learned that we like to have the availability or the flexibility to change our ideas and change our mind yeah which has happened yes which has happened yeah because you might be someplace like we haven't booked our final stop in Turkey which is supposed to be Bodrum um but we're you know to me I'm kind of like I I really feel confident we'll be able to get a place there and so we haven't booked anything right now because what if our minds change well if you booked a place that's not refundable uh which most Arab bnbs aren't um then you're kind of tied into it so yeah so we like to to hold off as much as we can but you know I would say that you're you know it really varies on where you're going and everything so well Carrie is a pro I've gotten really good at it she got really good at it I try and jump in to help and she goes Brian just just go sit down there's a method to my mad's a method to her Madness that is also a video that will be coming out very shortly here on YouTube uh car's method um to her Madness to find well it's to find our how we find such great deals for flights and kind of the process about that right but right yeah all right well we hope that this was helpful and that you enjoyed this and uh that you will stay tuned for our next episode uh where we I'm not really sure what the Topic's going to be yet but I'm sure it's going to be super exciting it's going to be a good one for sure all right Cheers Cheers

Channel: Brian and Carrie

Views: 14,237

Keywords: Brian and Carrie, full time travel, is time travel possible, full-time travel life, full time world travel, how to travel full time, full time travel job, retire and travel, digital nomads, digital nomad lifestyle, slow travel, retirement travel, full time travel bloggers, secret time travel, full time travel couple, full-time travel, digital nomad, no borders with brian and carrie, travel couple, travel the world full time, travel with us

Id: FSK5HIq0gWI

Length: 42min 21sec (2541 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2024