Taking the First Steps in Your Relocation Abroad

Sneak Peek:

Kristin:    00:00:00    If you live in Mexico, I mean you could eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner and get a couple shots of tequila for the same price as like one drink in Miami. And visualize yourself going to this country. If you had X amount of money in your bank account, how would you feel? And you wanna try to get it into a range where you feel comfortable with it and not like terrified if something happens. The easiest way to save money at the beginning is shared housing.  

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.  

Kristin Wilson, Host:    00:00:47    Hello and welcome to episode 143 of Badass Digital Nomads about taking those very, very first steps toward relocating to another country and experiencing a life of freedom and location independence. We are doing something a little bit differently today where I'm actually sharing with you one of the first live Q&A calls from my private group coaching program Ready to Relocate. Ready to Relocate is a three month program where I teach you step-by-step exactly how to relocate to another country for the first time. Whether you're going there for one month or one year or indefinitely, enrollment in Ready to Relocate will reopen in February of 2022. And if you'd like to get more information on how to join, you can apply at the link in the show notes or at travelingwithkristin.com/apply - A P P L Y. Now, I decided to share this training with you because after having lived this alternative lifestyle for two decades and helping thousands of people relocate to different countries, and then talking with tens of thousands of you one-on-one, either in direct messages or emails or YouTube comments, I've been able to glean this perspective where I can see what so many tens of thousands of you are struggling with, and probably hundreds of thousands or millions of you that want the same lifestyle, but on your own terms.  

Kristin:    00:02:38    And what I saw in the past few months of working with this very intimate group of 20 very special people is that these people together represent such a broad spectrum of the situations and times of your life that many of you are in yourselves. We had people of all ages, people who were working remotely, people who were working for themselves, people who were retiring or retired and starting second businesses, you know, people from their twenties and thirties through, I don't know, sixties and beyond. But I just wanted to share some of their stories with you because I think that each of you might relate to something that someone says today in some way. As I always say, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet. And then to give you some more context on this, because you'll be listening to this episode in the last week of January, 2022, this program started back in September of 2021.  

Kristin:    00:03:50    So do remember back at the end of September when I was speaking at that YouTube conference in Los Angeles called Vid Summit. And then we had the very first Traveling with Kristin in Person Meetup that week in Venice Beach, California. That was the week that this program opened. So this call is from the very beginning of October of 2021, and then you're listening to this at the end of January, 2022. So after these past four months that I really haven't been on YouTube, I've been teaching my amazing students who I've gotten to know so well and have become so fond of how to plan their relocations for the upcoming year. And it's been such a unique and fulfilling experience. And at first glimpse, three and a half months might seem like a long time to spend on planning a relocation, but that's because so much goes into relocating to another country, right?  

Kristin:    00:04:53    I mean, with my one-on-one relocation clients, three months is the minimum that they can work with me, and most people are working with me for six months at a time in planning their international relocations. And you might have even spent years contemplating the possibility of becoming location independent or moving to another country. So this is a really long process that I've been able to condense into this three or four month period, and it really does make a difference in saving you a lot of time and peace of mind in this process that has probably been on your mind for quite some time. So today's podcast is one of 10 live Q&A calls that we had throughout the duration of the course across the eight different phases of an international relocation. So each call was dedicated to a different topic, a different aspect of relocating from choosing a destination to finding housing, to integrating with a new culture to finances and tax issues.  

Kristin:    00:06:06    But I hope that today's call gives you a little bit of insight into the process of relocating and that you can also find common ground with your fellow podcast listeners who you might not otherwise get to connect with unless you're in the Facebook group, Badass Digital Nomads. But overall, I've just really, really enjoyed getting to know all of my students. And I hope that you find a lot of value and little insightful nuggets of wisdom and common ground and relatability in this conversation today. And before we get started, I would also like to thank Sandra B for the three coffees that she bought me this week. You can donate to the podcast or buy me a coffee at badassdigitalnomads.com/donate. And thank you again to everyone who left reviews in the month of January. I'll be sharing more of those in the coming weeks, but you can now leave a review directly on our website at badassdigitalnomads.com/reviews. Also, a quick note that there won't be a podcast next week, which I believe is February 1st as I'm working towards the first major deadline of my upcoming book, Digital Nomads for Dummies. So this is a very exciting lifelong goal of mine to write a book, um, any book, but especially about becoming a digital nomad. So make sure to join my email list at travelingwithkristin.com/subscribe so you can get notified when pre-orders for the book become available. And also to get my cool weekly newsletter that goes out every Friday or sometimes Saturdays <laugh>. Enjoy.  

Ready to Relocate Call starts:

Kristin:    00:07:59    So welcome everybody. Congratulations on completing the first module of the course. I just wanted to remind everybody that this is, I don't wanna say a marathon, not a sprint, but we do have about 10 weeks together. So just take things, you know, day by day, week by week, even things that might not seem to make sense now are going to fit in as the course progresses. And we're just taking one step, uh, one foot in front of the other to get to your final destination. So I'm really excited for this week because it is on choosing your dream location, and there is an extra lesson in this one. So I'll just do those day by day, um, starting tomorrow. And, um, we'll just rinse and repeat and continue each week until we get you to your destination. So it's also been great reading everybody's feedback forms and your check-in forms.  

Kristin:    00:09:01    So if you're watching this and you haven't done that yet, then make sure to fill those out. I'm gonna add Eddie's here. Sarah's here. Welcome you guys. So yeah, these check-in forms, they're only, as you saw, they're only about two questions or three questions, but you can download a copy of your form and this is going to basically create your own map, um, to your destination. Because what happens a lot of times when you're taking on a big goal or a big process like a relocation planning process or anything like writing a book or starting a business, anything that's gonna take sustained effort over months or sometimes even years in this case where taking those years you've already spent researching and compressing it down into a couple of months, um, but sometimes you can forget what you've already done. You can kind of lose your way.  

Kristin:    00:09:53    And so that's why I'm calling it the relocation roadmap because each piece is like a step in the map and then you can go back and look at your progress and always be able to find the, your place in the process throughout. So make sure to fill those out because three weeks from now you might forget something that you learned and you can go back and look at that. And then you can also celebrate your wins and your aha moments and your realizations as you have them. Fill out the live Q&A forms as they come up, and as your questions come up. And then I will save any questions that are applicable to a different week of the course so that when you come back, if you wanna rewatch the recordings, each one will be specifically about that module. So we'll try to keep them all really focused on that topic so that you can find it later.  

Kristin:    00:10:47    So if you have, you know, only questions about banking and even people who are watching this months from now, you can go to the banking Q&A recorded call and get all those banking questions answered there. And instead of having them mixed up with like housing and meeting people and culture shock and all the other things. So that is the plan, you know, with some flexibility. But just wanted to encourage you to fill in those check-in forms, uh, so that you can save all of the value that's coming up each week and any like, insights or ideas or thoughts that you might have that you might not remember six weeks from now that you had that idea. So it's kind of like having a pad of paper by your bed. So if you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, with an idea, you write it down. I thought since there's quite a group of us that we could just go around and each person share something positive from the week, uh, an insight that you had, an aha moment, an idea. And also, um, we'll go around and do one round of wins and then we'll start with the Q&A. Sound good? Okay, let's start with, start with Shane and Sophia and then I'll go around. Okay,  

Shane:    00:12:07    Okay, cool, you go ahead please. 

Sophia:    00:12:08      Hi. Hi everyone. I'm Sophia. Um, nice to meet everyone and to be able to put faces to the, I mean faces to the names. Um, so a big win for me this week, um, with the course material was actually when when I did the, um, the guided visualization of my ideal day. That was actually very surprising for me because for the first time I realized, or I allowed myself to, to kind of dream the dream of living somewhere where there's snow because I'm from South Africa and I'm in Mauritius now. I've never lived in snow, I've been on vacation in snowy areas. And it's, it's so magical for me and it's like my soul comes alive when I'm in the snow <laugh>. So I've never even allowed myself to envision a life where I actually live in the snow. And I did. And I had such a good time in that visualization. So <laugh>, that was super interesting and, and I was very excited about that. 

Kristin:    00:13:08    Ok,  Go ahead Shane.  

Sophia:   00:13:09    No problem.  

Shane:    00:13:10    No, I'm just gonna keep it simple. And just getting started on this program feels like a big win because, um, you know, it's like one of these things that is, seems so intimidating is all the different aspects of this kind of a process. And so, um, I like the idea of starting from a place of visualizing and trying to envision what it is you're, you're, you want before getting into the nitty gritty details. Cause I was kind of coming from the opposite place of, well, what's possible? Like, what are the, what's convenient, what can we actually do? And then like, choosing from those as opposed to being like, well, what would I want if we could do anything? And then kind of trying to make that happen. So, um, that's, yeah, that sounds really cool to me.  

Kristin:    00:13:57    Definitely. I think that's so common. Um, you know, and I don't think anyone would blame you for that because that is the message on the internet that there's, you know, thousands and thousands of people sharing their opinions and like the cost of living here and there. And it can get so disorienting and confusing that people get so far through the process, or they even find themselves abroad without ever really connecting with what they actually want. And then it can, that can persist for years and before it comes full circle and people are like, wait a second, this is actually what I wanted. And that time is not wasted, you know, it's still, you're still out there learning and traveling, but you can just kind of get to the good stuff really fast when you connect with, with why you want to do this and how you see this playing out. And then when all of these opportunities come to you later, people ask you, Hey, do you wanna go here? Do you wanna go there? You can just see like, well, does that resonate with me? And does that align with like what I set out to do at the beginning? And it just makes it so much easier to make those decisions later on. So great work. Okay. Yasmin...  

Yasmin:    00:15:10    Hi everyone. Um, yeah, so my husband and I, we went through the first couple parts of, um, I guess module one. Um, and it was very interesting where we figured out where things were aligned and where there's still some gaps, uh, to be filled mostly on. I think what he, what his ideal day is like, um, because he's not a techy person and, uh, like today he's onsite working somewhere because he needs to be in person. Um, versus I get to be just stuck at home remote <laugh> doing all the things. So, um, just kind of, it was really nice to just actually sit down and have a chat with him and, and kind of lay it all out and see where those gaps are exactly. Um, and then moving forward to, I think I posted in the group about, uh, my kids and thinking about homeschooling.  

Yasmin:    00:16:08    So we officially we were testing out some programs, so we, um, I signed up for a afterschool homeschool program that they're still in full-time school here in the states, but they will be testing out to see how it actually will function with them if they can, if they are like me and self, like self-motivated, like they can follow a schedule or if they'll need a little bit more prodding. So I don't know, I thought it was a, a good productive week. I have accountability now, so even if it's, there's an email from you or I see the Facebook group and people posting, I'm like, oh, it should probably, probably test things out and uh, and uh, and see if my kids can even handle homeschooling <laugh> or if I can handle it.  

Kristin:    00:16:52    I, I think probably Heidi and David and anyone who's moving as a couple, uh, that might come up is like, okay, let's make sure we're on the same page as a couple and our ideal days are aligned, of course, still respecting your different personalities. Uh, so that's great to hear that feedback. I'm sure Shane and Sophia have been talking about that too, amongst themselves. And also like, just a note, I'm loving the Facebook group so much. I think everybody is from your feedback forms as well, it's been really motivating for all of you to see what other people are going through. And that was the whole reason I decided to create this group course, uh, in the first place because I was the one focal point between each relocation client and I could see all of the commonalities, but then they couldn't communicate with each other on what they were struggling with.  

Kristin:    00:17:44    And so it's just been such a pleasure to have you all in this first group and just so much positivity and support of each other. So pat yourselves on the back and, uh, and also for showing up today, you know, showing up to the calls. I'm in a mastermind and it's also every Monday, so we haven't missed any calls and three years and it's just showing up whether you're going to the gym or it's this relocation call that is 90% of the work. So great job. Let's continue with Dave.

Dave: Yeah.

Kristin: When or amusings from the week?

Dave:    00:18:17    There--The big thing that happened for me this week was I used to be into target shooting and, um, I sold everything that my guns, everything, uh, last week and it's going to bankroll some of my travel, so I'm pretty happy about that. <laugh>. Um,

Kristin: Congrats.

Dave: Thank you.  

Kristin:    00:18:36    That's always fun to have those income streams coming in and your budget, right? Not just the outflow, but all of the, the windfall that can come from selling stuff is always fun.  

Dave:    00:18:47    I'm running off to the bank after this meeting <laugh>, so, um, but I'm looking forward to traveling a lot. I've, I've wanted to all my life and I've never gone, I went to Mexico once with a class, and that was in 1976. And, uh, it was really fun. I, we were there for a month and, uh, our dean took us, he'd been to Mexico many times and we stayed in places, kind of like what I'm envisioning doing now. He, you know, we stayed with a family at one point in Guadalajara and then started our trip outward and ended up in Zihuatanejo before there were any high rises. We were just on beach bungalows with sand floors and uh, a restaurant where, you know, parrots would run up, uh, fly up and eat food from your plate and stuff like that. But, um, I loved it. I didn't even want to come home, but, um, the pressures of, of learning in college, um, reminded me that if I didn't, I'd be behind in the future. So went, I went home. But <laugh> I've always wanted to travel more than I've wanted to go for years, and this is possible now. So I'm looking forward to it.  

Kristin:    00:20:05    Great. That sounds great, Dave. Thank you so much for sharing that. And it's, it's finally happening, so, very exciting. Okay, let's move on to Heidi and David.  

David:    00:20:19    Hello everyone. Good to see some faces this morning. Um, I had a very good experience with the budgeting spreadsheet just in terms of, uh, us realizing that we're actually in, in pretty good shape financially as we make these plans. Um, it was somewhat of a relief to notice that we are in the midst of, uh, selling our home and, uh, that might realize that substantial windfall for us to, to help these plans move forward forward.  

Kristin:    00:20:47    That's great news.  

Heidi:    00:20:48    Hi, I'm Heidi. Nice to meet everybody. I think that, uh, for me it was really interesting when I went through, uh, your guided visual, which was by the way, sensational Kristin. I just really appreciated that I could see myself using that for other things as well. Or even once I've lived somewhere and things are starting to change, I'll use it again and see what's important to me at that time. But when, um, but that was really helpful. And then the exercise where you did the seven questions, you start with the practical reason or whatever why you're relocating and you get down to the bottom underlining reality of the whole thing. But, um, what I really noticed about this week was, um, and what I really took away from this week is peace of mind in knowing that we have you. I mean, how lucky are we to have you <laugh>, um, to help us do this, to help us go step by step to help us, like you say, uh, follow that dream that we've always had. So thank you. 

Kristin:    00:22:02    Thank you so much. I'm gonna get emotional here. Um, you know, I use that why exercise? Uh, you can use it for anything. Um, you can use it for, you know, weight loss or any question that you're struggling with. Like, why didn't they teach us this in kindergarten to just ask ourselves why is this important to do? And it's a good way to break down blocks. I actually used it on Friday. I recorded my first ever video of mixing music at a professional studio with a green screen. And like, it was very scary. And I, before I went in, I did the why exercise, why is it important for me to make music? Why is it important for me to share music with other people? And you always come up with this answer that is so different from what you think it's gonna be in your head.  

Kristin:    00:22:54    So thank you for sharing that and, and I'm so honored to be guiding you all through this. It's, you know, it's really the culmination of years and years, really, like two decades of work. And I can still remember feeling so lost and like alone and scared living in Australia the first time and not having any support from my study abroad program at my school either where I was, uh, leaving, you know, my home school and then my school in Australia, like no support, whatever, uh, whatsoever and finding housing or like integrating with the culture. And that was in 2003. And so to have gone from there to now like helping others with, with this is just very, it's very personal and I'm just so honored to be, um, in the position where I can help people do something like this that is so life changing. Um, so thank you so much for sharing that and it's, it's an honor to help you all with this and I can't wait to see where you end up in the end and, and to have that clarity and peace of mind. So it's my pleasure. Um, let's go with Matthew. 

Matthew:    00:24:13    Hi everyone. Um, I think it's gonna be a very valuable exercise the entire 10 weeks that we're doing on my behalf. Uh, the, uh, visualization exercise was, uh, was interesting. Uh, you, you, you come back to the fundamentals ultimately. Um, I think that most of the struggle I'm gonna have is gonna be later during the program. And the, the deciding where I'm going to end up might actually be a bit more, uh, an issue than I thought initially. Uh, for sure I'm not going to be a, uh, nomad or traveler. That was also a good precision. And the budgeting exercise actually made me do this weekend, a few emails and calls because I want to make sure that, uh, there, there was obviously some things that I was not thinking about and I'm right now already trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with a few things that I own. So I'm looking at storage options and things like that already, which I just didn't even had the thought of initially. And, uh, if, if, if you guys aren't familiar with living in the winter, uh, period or time, I can send you a nice picture because I'm here in Canada and I'm gonna send you a picture of what it is to live daily in the snow.  

Kristin:    00:25:38    Okay. Put it in the chat

Sophia:   00:25:42    <laugh>. Thank you!

Shane: We were thinking of Canada even, so we're..

Sophia:   00:25:45    Actually considering Canada as an option, so that would be great.

Matthew: It's your choice, but you're, you're, you're being warned.  

Shane:   00:25:52    Oh, okay. It's a warning picture. Okay. And, uh, real quick on the budget thing, I realized that like excess extra professional equipment, so I would travel to South Africa and I brought the necessities of what I need for my work, but I have like an extra camera, an extra computer, and didn't even think about, oh yeah, I could sell that and, you know, have a little extra money for the budget. So that was one thing,  

Kristin:    00:26:15    Right? Yeah. Once you see the, the value of the stuff that you have, it also helps with making the decision of if you wanna get a storage unit, you know, if it's worth it. Like some things have intangible value, but other things, like, I noticed this before when I had a storage unit for a few years that my storage unit was more expensive than the value of what I had in there, like clothing and things like that. I mean, I had my snowboard and some stuff, but maybe I could have put that at my parents' house or something. So otherwise you can just end up buying like four snowboards, <laugh> within two years, uh, maybe donated or something. So we'll get to that. Um, that is in the, I think ready set move. Yes. What to do with your stuff. So we'll get to that in module five. Uh, Lucky you are up next.  

Lucky:    00:27:11    Uh, I wanna go where, where Dave is in the background, that palm tree, uh, just plant me right under there and I'm good. Uh, I was laughing earlier cuz I, I was looking at Heidi and David. It looked like they were dressed for the great white north and I went to the next one there Dave, and I'm like, wow, that's a big difference. Um, I'm already moving around. I'm, I'm beyond where most people are. I'm past the planning. I'm finishing up five months in the country of Georgia. I'll be back in the US next week for a few days and then off to to Mexico. It's just finding a place that feels right. I'm, I'm doing what's known like the trifecta. I'm spending my first year in three different places from Mexico. I'll be going to Ecuador and I'm just trying to find one that I can go back to and explore longer and maybe find that place I really wanna settle.  

Lucky:    00:28:04    And um, you know, I kind of gotten in a rut here and this assignment on like what to do with your Sunday, what to do with your workday. It got me kind of thinking, okay, I need to change gears. I'm getting ready to move to a whole different place and I need to take a different approach when I get there. So it helped me kinda get kickstarted again back to, uh, where I should be approaching it when I first get there. You know, I'm in a country where they, they don't speak English as their native, uh, you know, as their, their first language. And um, the language here is almost impossible to learn. They have their own alphabet and it's not spoken any place else in the world. So it's, unless you're gonna live here full-time, it's not worth bothering. Just learn a few phrases and you're, you're good.  

Lucky:   00:28:49    But, um, you know, each place has its own, its own setbacks and its own, you know, selling points. And, um, I'm, I'm looking forward to learning it. You know, like I said, I'm in a little bit different place. Some of the questions I have are a little bit different. Um, the area that you covered of all the different types of travel, I've already studied all that at, at at length other than the few things that were the cons, some of that I forgot. But, um, you know, I've come across a lot of digital nomads this summer. They're here one week, they're going the next. I'm thinking there is no way unless you're like 25, there's no way you can do that. That's crazy. But, just, you know, find, find whatever's comfortable. That's the thing. Just finding what feels right. And stretching a little bit there.  

Kristin:    00:29:40    You make a good point about like, you know, having that perspective from already being abroad, but then still reconnecting with what you wanna do because it, it can be easy to get influenced by other people or just to fall into a rut and kind of lose sight of, of what you want. So really important to that. You were able to reconnect with that and that it gave you some, some more inspiration and like a little course correction for the next destination. And even with the types of expats, having a definition for what it is that, that you most relate to, it can just help you have that understanding of like who you are and like what phase you're in. And you might be in one phase of expat now and then in a couple years be in another phase and instead of being confused of like, what's going on, like what do I do?  

Kristin:    00:30:34    I don't know what I'm doing, it's like, oh wait, I'm just shifting into a different type, you know, a a different path in this phase of my life. And so that can just give you some more like peace of mind. So when you see other people like rushing through, you know, two days here, one week there and they're like bouncing off all the different borders you can be like, ah, they are in that phase <laugh> and you can partake in it when, when appropriate and then know when it's time to change ears and do something else. 

Lucky:   00:31:03    So  eventually I wanna like settle in one place cuz I was gonna get into energy healing and I thought I can't be carrying, uh, a massage table all over the world with me. I mean, I've gotta find home before I can get back to that. So, um, you know, my travel will keep slowing as it goes until I find where, where that place is and then see how I can fit in with, with that, uh, community. So.  

Kristin:    00:31:28    Great. Yeah.  

Lucky:  00:31:30    We're doing good.  

Kristin:    00:31:31    All right. Off to a good start. Let's continue with Kathleen.  

Kathleen:    00:31:35    Hi everybody. Nice to meet y'all. The visualization thing was definitely something I enjoyed. Of course. You know, I have a lot of questions. I, I dream big, you know, but then when it comes down to the actuality of it, I mean I've traveled all across the US and I've been to Matamoros, Mexico and Cancun, but other than that I haven't been outta the country. So the logistics of um, you know, like taxes and how long you can stay and traveling, bouncing in and out to be able to do it, that seems kind of really overwhelming, but that's why I'm here, you know, to try to figure that out. Um, I'm not gonna give up my dream, but I need direction because there is a plethora on the internet of so much stuff that you're not sure. It seems overwhelming and, um, you know, know like being older, um, going from one place to next so much, I don't know that I could do that at my age.  

Kathleen:    00:32:48    I think I like to stay somewhere a little bit longer to actually get a feel for it because just like, um, the honeymoon phase of a new place, that's good, but I think I need to stick around a little longer to get to know how it actually is to live there, to, to be able to figure out is this the right place for me or do I move on to the next step? So money is always an issue, but I'm very good at budgeting and I'm very much minimalist. I don't need much. So it's just getting over those hurdles and Kristin, when you talk about that you were scared at this point or scared at that point, you know, and I see you as this very outgoing, very, um, confident woman. Um, I'm just like, you know, okay, if she was scared at these points or whatever early on, maybe I just need to learn more experience more, get past some of my fears and uh, then move on and find out. I'm kind of like, um, Heidi was saying too, my, my main thing is that after working so hard on my life and I worked a lot of overtime and I wanna be able to say that I had some time to relax, some time to enjoy life, find out true happiness and then maybe share some of that with my grandkids and kids.  

Kristin:    00:34:16    That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that Kathleen. And you know, just trust in the process and some of the questions that have been on your mind, like new questions coming up that I can see. Okay, this question will be answered here. This question will be answered there and you'll find out by the end that all of your questions were answered, all of those boxes were checked and that you have a sound plan and that you know, you know where you wanna go and what you wanna do first. So totally normal, normal process anytime you're learning something new. But it's great that you did all of the exercises and the visualization and came to these conclusions of that this is where you see yourself and this is what you wanna do. Because like I said in the video, no one ever asks you that. Maybe your parents ask you or your teachers like what do you wanna be when you grow up?  

Kristin:    00:35:10    But there's really not enough space created around to like protect who you are and you know what you wanna do in life beyond just what your job title is. So this is really like a sacred time to be able to explore that and just kind of be open to what comes up. So just keep doing what you're doing, you know, each day, each week little pieces of the puzzle will come together and, and you'll see like a monumental change by the end and also in your own confidence. So there, yeah, there have been so many times that I didn't know what I was doing and I was confused. And so that's why, you know, I wanted to help you guys with avoiding a lot of the unnecessary pain that comes with this planning process and like you said, all the overwhelm that comes from the internet and the bottomless black hole of, of YouTube and everything else. So.  

Kathleen:   00:36:07    Well, and I just wanted to say too that um, I really appreciate these type of things because I love to actually interact with people and get their thoughts. And for me everything is visual. So you know, seeing the expressions on people's faces, seeing both young and old and people from different points in life, um, sharing and you know, then I build confidence that way from them. And I also hear commonalities of things so that I don't have to feel like I'm the lone ranger out there struggling with this, um, knowing whether I can do this or not by myself. So yeah, thank, thanks everybody.  

Kristin:    00:36:52    Being in a community is the biggest part of one of the biggest things of just being human. Just good to come together and, you know, create something special and, and encourage each other's wins. So, and know that you can all do this no matter what your age, what your nationality, what your job title. Like all of you will see that you can all have this, it's completely possible for you. So Wonderful. Okay, Sarah is next. Welcome Sarah.  

Sarah:    00:37:21    Hi. Um, I would say my biggest win throughout the week has really just been, the visualization was just really helpful because it helped me reaffirm what I already kind of knew was true about really how I wanted to spend the rest of my time continuously doing slow travel. So that was definitely like, just makes it more real I think because I'm definitely more of like a very independent traveler. So just understanding like what I actually visualized that I wanted to do was ultimately the best decision for me. But then also what kind of made it real was just, I would say the mindset of understanding the nuances of everything that's within the budget that I'm not familiar with. Specifically being like the more or less like the legal fees and the visa process. That's something that I'm trying to understand and research myself and then understanding the nuances of every single country that I would consider. I think that that's like having a checklist like that is extremely important, especially if I'm wanting to maybe do like slow travel for four countries a year, long term. I think that that's like extremely important, especially for me planning that out, being by myself. So just kind of again, really get into the mindset of having all those things there so I feel secure.

Kristin:    00:38:53    Great, thank you so much for sharing that. You guys will have access to my Visa Database. So I think we have about 38 countries in it right now and that will be, um, continually updated. So you actually don't have to do any extra research right now cuz that's gonna all come up and you'll have the, the tools there that you can research from. So everything will be covered, you know, as we go along. So you can just kind of sit back and relax and then come to that section each, you know, when the next one comes available and, and cross that off your to-do list then. And I also liked that you shared that um, it reiterated and like reaffirmed what you thought you wanted to do and hopefully that gave you more confidence in how you see your vision and just, and know that that's, you know, what you want with certainty. So very helpful to share. And I think for everyone else that there are no wrong answers. It's like whatever you saw in your visualization, whatever you wrote in your journal, like that's for you. And I think Steve just came in or maybe he is here. Yeah. Okay, so we'll, we'll continue with Chip and then Steve.

Chip:    00:40:09    A lot of uh, internet issues but hopefully you can hear me. It's great to meet all of y'all. 

Kristin:    00:40:16  We can hear you.

Chip:    00:40:17     Okay, great. <inaudible> Texas and I have one week left on my current full-time job. I'm putting this plan in, in action and I'm glad I'm, I started watching Kristin's videos on, on YouTube as I developed my own channel, which has nothing to do with with travel. More about aging, uh, health healthy aging program came along at the right time. I had a little hash on hand and uh, was glad to get to meet you and and learn and what I think I learned was this past week, uh, is there's a lot of pieces moving in my life was that slow travel is what I'm going to be most interested in. I think when you called me we talked about maybe a cruise to Europe to get overseas, what do you a good way to start out on the slow thing and then I'm kind of aiming for maybe, uh, central Europe, Eastern Europe, uh, new Croatia, you on your <inaudible> was a beautiful blue sea. Uh, Fort Worth is technically warm, a warm climate, but I wanna be closer to a beach. I grew up on the East coast and it's been difficult being here for 20 years with no real beach access. I look forward to meeting all of y'all and continuing, I'm going back to work this afternoon so I won't talk too long and if I have to disappear...  

Kristin:    00:41:35    Great. Thank you. Thank you Chip for sharing. I think we got everything. It was breaking up a little bit, but I, I think we, we heard everything so next time we'll all have, we should all have our virtual background so we can all be at the beach like Dave <laugh>. Um, but I love hearing like from Sophia on snow and from you about the beach and just seeing like what you're passionate about and what you're interested in and where you see yourselves living and even how fast you wanna travel. This is all very insightful so keep up the good work and so glad that you joined this first group. So we have a few minutes left. I'll just go through a couple of questions. So of course I've saved all the questions from your forms and we'll be also allocating some of those questions to different weeks.  

Kristin:    00:42:28    There's a couple that are related to this module. We did get a lot of questions on travel restrictions and that's going to be coming up in a future module. So we will cover that Then. Kathleen had a question on Southwest's canceled flights to fly to Mexico. If you can't go on Southwest, you might need to rebook on another airline. And that's actually a good reason, you know, why to get travel insurance in case something like that happens. I had one time I was flying in Europe and the airline that I was flying with went out of business. Like they actually declared bankruptcy and canceled all of the flights. And so in Europe they have a really good system. I was able to recoup my money, um, or I don't know if I did it through the EU or if I did it through my travel insurance, but yeah, things like that can happen where I got to the airport, no flight ever again on that airline and I had to book another ticket.  

Kristin:    00:43:27    So let's see. There was also a question about cruises. It's something I'll probably cover in next week cuz we're talking about dream locations and like your, your destination decision. We had some questions about money, social security that's gonna be covered in the money module so I wanna make sure we cover all those questions there so that you can just go and get all those answers in one video. Collecting social security checks and income requirements for visas we're gonna be covering in this next module with a visa database and vaccine requirements we're gonna be covering in another one. Lucky had a question on co-living communities. I think that's also a question for next week cuz we're gonna be uh, or no for week three cuz we're gonna be talking about different types of housing. So I've saved that one for that week and then you can see why I added another week off after week three because weeks one, two and three are, are very packed with information so it might take some extra time to let that sink in.  

Kristin:    00:44:38    Dave had some questions on budgeting that we can cover because this week was about budgeting. He says, is there a preferred safety margin for the cost of living budget estimate compared to the current monthly budget, like 10% for unanticipated expenses? This is optional. I think 10% is a good buffer, but it depends on how fast you'll be traveling. So if you're just thinking of going to one or two destinations in the next year, then you might wanna do 10% for each move. But you can see how if you were to be a, a jet setter or a slowmad and going places like one month, three months or even less time, right weekly, that those, that 10% gets duplicated for each time you move. Cuz there's always gonna be an unanticipated expense. So it depends how many places you're going, but I would do that for each time you change destinations.  

Kristin:    00:45:34    Even something as simple as your transportation. Like, you know, maybe you end up spending more on Uber driver or you know, your flight gets canceled and you have to rebook a flight and maybe you have to come out of pocket for that before you get reimbursed by your travel insurance. Those are the kinds of things that can come up. And then he also asked, is there any preferred amount of cash to set aside for unforeseen expenses? And in, in my experience with location clients, I've had some people move with really no safety net that I don't recommend. And then if they don't get enough work in the first few weeks that they're abroad, you know, working online, maybe they're freelancing or doing something else, then they can't cover their expenses and then have to move back. So I put in there three to six months.  

Kristin:    00:46:27    I think six months can be, you know, very, very conservative and that's not realistic for everybody. But it also depends on where you're going, which you'll find in the next, uh, upcoming in this week and what the cost of living is there. So let's say that by relocating you're actually lowering your cost of living. You may be able to get your savings rate up higher. So let's say your cost of living is $3,000 in the United States, but then it becomes 1500 if you move to Mexico, of course that first month that you move, you might have those one-time startup expenses like your flight and your security deposit, things like that. But then after that you can get that extra savings on your cost of living by lowering your housing allowance, lowering cost of food, lowering your cost of transportation. I went to a friend's birthday party on Friday here in Miami and it's like one bottle of water cost $8 <laugh> at the, at the bar.  

Kristin:    00:47:30    One drink was like $17 or $12 depending on what it was. And like that can be a whole day of food if you live in Mexico. I mean you could eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and get a couple shots of tequila for the same price as like one drink in Miami. So it just depends on, you know, where you're going, you know, whatever you feel comfortable with and just maybe take some time to check in and, and and visualize yourself going to this country. If you had X amount of money in your bank account, how would you feel? Would you feel relaxed and confident? Would you feel anxious? Like try to find where, you know, how would you be feeling and you wanna try to get it into a range where you feel comfortable with it and not like terrified if something happens. Um, there's also a question about meetups.  

Kristin:    00:48:21    For meetups we'll talk about in the community section and meeting people. Sarah asked about some budgeting hacks from my first time living abroad and traveling with a lower budget compared to now where I have a more steady income stream. What is more important to spend your money on versus lesser priorities? The funny thing that happens when you move abroad is that you kind of start back over with Maslow's hierarchy of needs from the bottom. So shelter and safety become very important. So when I first studied abroad, I think they gave us a couple days of housing in a dorm, like maybe three days of housing. And then after that I was literally sleeping on the couch of a friend of a friend in Australia. I think I stayed there for two weeks and then moved on to another place where the way that I was able to save money as a student was renting a room and a shared flat.  

Kristin:    00:49:20    And at first I lived with two brothers, so we like had a three bedroom apartment, but you know, then you come up with personality differences or like cleanliness differences, things like that. So the easiest way to save money at the beginning is shared housing. Um, because you could rent a room for a couple hundred dollars or a few hundred dollars versus $2,000 for your own apartment or $1,000. So you can cut it by 50%, 75% and that goes for anywhere that you're going. So maybe a private apartment in Mexico might be $1,200 a month or a room might be $400 a month. But then if you go to Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe, you can get an entire apartment for $400 a month private and maybe rent a room for like $200. Uh, so it depends where you're going. Transportation and housing are the biggest expenses and then after that comes food.  

Kristin:    00:50:25    So by choosing shared housing off peak flights and or, or using a train or ride sharing, which we'll talk about later and how to find that in another module. Eating at home more versus eating out. So when you're traveling slower, you have more time to cook. All of these things will help you. But my entire time I lived abroad, I lived in either a home stay in Costa Rica learning Spanish or in shared housing with other students that we found on our own like privately and just split the rent. Um, we also had from Heidi some questions on healthcare. We're gonna cover that in an upcoming module in in very good detail. Also with residency permits. We'll cover that there. Shez is not here. I think she's working but Hi Shez, if you're watching the replay, she's in Texas as well. She says Barcelona will be the first city that I relocate to.  

Kristin:    00:51:28    Would it be better to stay there for three months or split that time between Barcelona and Amsterdam? What are the pros and cons? So we'll cover this a little bit more next week on the Visas, but um, both Barcelona, so Spain and Holland are both in the Schengen zone. So that's part of this 90 day time period that you can stay there for a workaround. Now is that Spain is, they have announced a digital nomad visa. So if you end up being able to qualify for that visa, which I think that you definitely would, you could actually use Spain as your home base for a year. And I think that they even were making up to two or three years. It's not available yet and the Netherlands hasn't announced one, but that would be one way. Another way would be to get a digital nomad visa in another Schengen country, uh, like Estonia for example.  

Kristin:    00:52:21    And you could stay in Estonia for, for up to 180 days in the year without um, paying any taxes there. And then that gives you the extra time to stay in the Schengen. So even if um, you know, you can have 90 days then in Barcelona, 90 days in Estonia, 90 days in in Amsterdam, 90 days in Estonia and stay on the European continent. But if you were to just go with your passport on a tourist visa, then that depends on your goals. Like what came out of your expat type and your relocation identity. Is it more important for you to see two places and get like a taste of the lifestyle in each one or is it more important for you to integrate, uh, work If you're working full time, it might be better to stay in one place and get to know it really well for 90 days cuz that three months goes by really fast. And then, you know, go to another country where you can renew your visa and then come back. But ideally by the time that Shez that you're relocating, maybe you can apply for that Spain visa and make Barcelona your home base. And then Steve, I'll get with you later on the calendar if you still can't access it and  

Steve: 14    00:53:42    I can't access it now. I I just hadn't read one of your, your first messages. That was my problem. Uh, I've created a folder just for you now.  

Kristin:    00:53:53    Okay, great. So it looks like Steve is unmuted and Eddie is now here. How I have another call that starts right now at one o'clock. So, um, I'm sorry that we missed you guys and make sure to submit your questions in advance on the next call and you guys can go first doing your introductions in your feedback on the next call. And then we also have iPad entered the room. I don't know who that is. <laugh>,  

Steve:    00:54:22    <laugh>  

Kristin:    00:54:23    Announce yourself, iPad, someone else is here. But you can also share if you missed the introduction in this group call, um, hop over onto the Facebook group and share, uh, what you learned or anything you want to celebrate, any wins, any questions. And we'll be keeping track of all of those. So yeah, you can see how with all the questions, we wanna make sure that they are organized into each category so that you can come back and find them later.  

Shelly:   00:54:47    Kristin, quick question. This is iPad. Oh,  

Kristin:    00:54:50    Hi Shelly. It's Shelly.  

Speaker 15    00:54:52    Hi. Um, what group do I join for the Facebook Live?  

Kristin:    00:54:58    Oh no, check your spam because I know you're definitely on the list and also the Zoom info is in the course area. Did you see that?  

Shelly:    00:55:08    I found it in the, I found it in your second email. I didn't see it in the first one.  

Kristin:    00:55:12    Okay. And then I'll um, also in the course area in module zero it has a link to the Facebook group.  

Shelly:    00:55:21    Okay,  

Kristin:    00:55:21    Great. Um, so just send me a request and then I will, I will let you in, but also I can just send you the link right here.  

Shelly:    00:55:29    Oh, way cool. Okay.  

Kristin:    00:55:30    And I just sent it there in the chat.  

Shelly:    00:55:33    Thank you.  

Kristin:    00:55:34    And then great, well good work everybody. The next module will be uploaded tomorrow and we'll have a fun week of deciding where you're going to move. Bye everyone. Have a good week.

Everyone:    00:55:47     Thanks Kristin. Nice to meet you all. Bye.  

Kristin:    00:55:52    Hope that you enjoyed this glimpse into my signature relocation program. Ready to Relocate. For more information on how you can get help with your relocation, head on over to travelingwithkristin.com/apply and I'll see you back here on the podcast in two weeks. Take care.