Travel Tips: Budget Your Trip
March 10, 2010 by Michaela Potter
Filed under Favorites, Travel Tips
During their 10 months of travel, Laurie and Bryan Tighe traveled through West Africa, the Middle East, India and Nepal. Along the way they were meticulous in keeping to their budget. And with their computer programming skills, they were able to develop an online calculator to keep track of their money and budget. And now they are sharing that with others with Budget Your Trip.
Furthermore, the website’s budget calculator allows users to estimate the cost of future trips. The budgets provided by other travelers are used to determine the average cost of countries, cities, and categories a traveler might visit. Visitors to the site can search for the average daily costs of accommodation, food, and numerous other categories for cities and countries around the world.
Be sure to check out Budget Your Trip for future trips. And if you have budgets from previous trips, be sure to enter them and help out your fellow travelers!
Married with Luggage: Saving Money to Change Their Lives
March 8, 2010 by Michaela Potter
Filed under Featured Posts, Let's Go, Preparation
It’s easy to think that to travel the world you need to spend a lot of money. And the thought of being able to save enough money can seem daunting. But if you really want to realize your dream, you will find ways to make it happen.
That’s what Betsy & Warren Talbot, of Married with Luggage, have done. In two years they have managed to save $100,000 towards their dream travels, enough to live on the road for three years! But it didn’t come easy. Before saving, they recognized the need to get out of the debt they were in. They made radical changes to their lifestyle, including moving across the country, and found creative ways to still have an active social life without breaking the bank.
They share many of the ways they managed to get out of debt AND save in their free eBook, “How we saved enough money to change our lives (and how you can, too!)”
Among the chapters include:
How We Saved Half Our Income in One Year | Creating a Lifestyle to Support Our Dream | Selling Our Possessions | Determine How Much Money You Need | Find out Where Your Money is Going | How to Have Fun on a Tight Budget | Making Money off Your Junk | and Online Tools for Managing Your Money
Betsy shares with us why they decided to take a career break, some more insight on how they saved money, and their plans during and after their travels.
What are your current careers?
Warren is a Director at Microsoft, and I consult with solo entrepreneurs on planning and projects for their small businesses. Warren also started a side business last year developing Wordpress websites, which has been very successful.
Like most people – we worked too many hours and thought that when we both retired (in 19 years) we’d slow down and enjoy life a little more. Then my brother had a heart attack in his 30s and a good friend – also in her 30s – had a brain hemorrhage all within 4 months. We were saying all the usual things about how life is short over dinner with some friends, and then after a steady stream of margaritas the topic of our life dream came up. The more we talked the more we wondered what was really standing in the way of all that. (Thankfully both my brother and our friend have recovered.) By the next morning our goal was set, all that was left was the planning.
You have radically changed your lifestyle in order to save for this break. What has been the most difficult thing to give up? What has been most difficult is the change in our social life. When we first started saving we cut out almost all eating out and socializing, and it took us a while to find a way to make that work in our budget. To give you some perspective on that, we realized were eating out 13 times a week (together and separately) including dinner out most nights of the week. Keep in mind that we originally moved from the Boston suburbs to an artsy neighborhood in Seattle in order to have a better lifestyle, and we were fully taking advantage of it! We eventually learned to appreciate happy hour in lieu of full dinners, game nights at home, potluck parties with friends, and even the search for a good bottle of wine under $10 (“Menage a Trois” has won the honor of the Talbot house wine).
One of the funniest money-saving stories was early on when Warren decided to save money by cutting his own hair. He bought the clippers as an investment ($50) and thought he would save $25/month for the remaining 24 months before our trip (total savings = $550). When it came time for the first haircut, he asked me to help him cut the back, and he became frustrated that I wasn’t pressing hard enough with the clippers to give him a uniform “buzz”. He finally got frustrated and grabbed it from me to show me how it was done. He then dug a 2-inch bald spot into the back of his head as my eyes went wide and I started to laugh. Was it really worth it to save $550 over 2 years? We both agree the story alone is priceless. One of the reasons I love him is that nothing ever seems like the end of the world. He just laughed and said it would grow back, and from then on he never asked me to help him cut his hair. He’s continued doing it ever since then and never had another incident. And we are almost $550 richer (which is another 5-1/2 days on the road!).
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in saving money that you want to share with others?
- If you have debt, pay it off. If you can’t pay your debt off right away, at least stop buying new stuff. You will never be able to freely follow your dreams if you owe money to other people. And you’ll never pay it off if you keep adding to it.
- Keep track of your spending for one week. You’ll be shocked at where your money is going. I would have never thought we ate out 13 times a week until I saw proof of it myself. And guess where most of our savings comes from now? That same money we were spending on restaurants. You probably have the money you need to at least get started on your dream. You’re just spending it somewhere else.
- Break your savings goal down into bite-sized pieces. For instance, we have figured that our budget for the trip is $100/day. It makes it really easy for me to say no to a new pair of shoes if I know it will gain me an extra day on the road. Figure out your number, and it will be much easier to save a little every day than thinking of a big overwhelming number that you can’t wrap your head around.
We’ve saved $100,000 so far, and we’ll have even more by the time we leave in October. We plan to be gone for 3 years, longer if we can bring in enough revenue creating websites, writing and consulting. We’ve learned a lot by reading the blogs of other travelers, and we plan to travel slowly to both save money and fully appreciate what life sends our way.
What are your plans after you are done? Do you plan to go back to similar careers?
We’d love to continue a traveling lifestyle with a small homebase, and we’re open to having that base in another country. We figure that the worst-case scenario will be that we come back to our regular lives and get regular jobs, but we hope not. Just the planning for this trip has changed our thinking about what kind of life we can live, and we cannot even imagine how much more that will change as we begin traveling. We expect our creativity to blossom on this trip and open up options we can’t even imagine. For us, the key going into this process is that we must learn to open ourselves up to the possibilities, which is not natural for most of us. If I could write about life, meet people, and finally learn to play the guitar I’d consider that a very successful career. Warren is a born connector, and with his background I could definitely see him working with venture capitalists and startups around the world, especially in “do good” fields that mirror his beliefs.
How do you plan to use your career break to reach those “post-travel” goals and do you have a savings plan in place for that period of time?
We actually have a separate savings fund for “re-entry” and would love to never have to use that money. We will be actively working every day during our trip to make it into a permanent lifestyle, so it is more of a permanent career restructuring than anything.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all pursue our talents and interests and have a great time doing it?
You can follow Betsy and Warren’s travel preparations and future travels on Married with Luggage, and also on Twitter @betsytalbot. And get a copy of their free eBook here!
Photo Friday: Pumamarca, Peru
March 5, 2010 by Michaela Potter
Filed under Photo Friday
For our first Photo Friday I choose a photo from my volunteer experience with Peru’s Challenge during my 2006 career break. With the extreme flooding that has been devastating vast regions of Peru, I am reminded of how much that experience and the people of Peru touched me. As part of my volunteering, I photographed the children of Pumamarca for a fundraising calendar. In order to capture them most naturally (without hamming it up for the camera), I used a long lens and shot away while they were distracted during playtime. This is just one of many that truly captured their spirit.
Every Friday we’ll feature a career break inspired photo. Want to see your photo here? Join our Facebook Fan Page and upload your career break photo to our Photo Friday Album. Add a brief description of the photo and we may choose to feature it here!
Barbara & Elizabeth Pagano’s Sailing Sabbatical
March 3, 2010 by Michaela Potter
Filed under Career Breakers, Contemplating, Testimonials
What made you decide to take a sabbatical?
Each of us had different reasons. For me, life was good – but predictable. I had been successful in my career, had a nice home and marriage; yet I wanted to put myself in a challenging situation to “see if I could do it.” My daughter, Elizabeth, was in her mid-30s and had a string of life and career questions stretching in front of her. She hoped that time away might offer clarity… and maybe even answers.
What were you doing beforehand career-wise?
As an executive coach to leaders worldwide, I was busy with corporate client initiatives on leadership and developing a reputation as a facilitator and speaker. Elizabeth was a newspaper reporter before spending a few years working for her father’s manufacturing business.
What was your sailing experience like prior to your break?
This question always makes us laugh! We had sailed for 15+ years as second-mates and galley queens with my husband, Herb. We’d never handled a boat alone and certainly never sailed at night. So, Elizabeth went to a week of sailing school in Key West, and I went to navigation school (and flunked the test).
We practiced docking for a couple of days and watched the mechanic change the engine oil once. Seriously, we weren’t very experienced, and we knew we’d learn a lot along the way. But we had confidence in our ability to learn quickly, and we promised people we’d make good decisions. We put a whole lot of books on “bad weather sailing” and “boat systems” onboard, just in case!
Desire outranks skill and experience. If you really want to do something, you’ll learn what you need to know.
What were some of the ways you prepared for this new experience? Were there any experiences from your corporate life that helped you in the preparation process?
The best things we had going for us were our enthusiasm and a pretty good mother-daughter relationship. We communicated openly and frequently. That doesn’t mean we saw eye to eye on everything, because we didn’t! (Slammed teak cabin doors make a loud bang.) The absolute best thing we did was to not declare a “captain.” This aggravated many of the cruisers we met who’d say, “but you have to have a captain.” But it worked for us. In fact, because neither of us carried more weight, we were forced to “work it out.” And the quicker the better, because we were in tight quarters, you know?
We built on our communication skills, worked through our conflicts, and shared stunning daily vistas that made us smile. Plus, we enjoy one another’s company and like to laugh. That helped.
The reactions from family and friends were mixed. While Elizabeth’s friends tended to think it was cool and were supportive, my friends said things like: “Are you out of your mind?”; “This is dangerous”; “You don’t know what you’re doing.” My husband asked me if I’d consider putting a captain on board. But it was important to me to try to do it on our own. He accepted that and was totally supportive (but fearful as well).
How did you decide on what to do and where to go?
Our approaches were very different. I just wanted to “head south for as long as we can.” Elizabeth needed a goal. One afternoon, we rolled out a map of the Caribbean and I said, “Pick a place.” Elizabeth chose Trinidad…that became the goal.
But we never made it that far. And in hindsight, the goal was too aggressive given the time of year, wind direction and the length of our sabbatical. In the end, the goal wasn’t important – the journey was.
What surprised you the most about yourself during this trip? About each other?
I was challenged with pushing a little boat through big water, and there was much I didn’t know. Navigation was a puzzle and so were some of the boat’s systems. And while I was determined, I realized I was slower than my daughter to pick up things and “get it”. At first that was so frustrating to me (and to Elizabeth). Accepting the fact that age changes things just meant I had to be persistent and plan for a longer learning curve – but I’d eventually get it!
Elizabeth had always known me to be a very confident, in-charge, decisive woman. Then, a couple of weeks into the trip, she realized I was none of those things. Her nickname for me was “Nervous Nelly.” I didn’t like that at all. As the trip unfolded, Elizabeth watched me work through my self-doubt and show vulnerability. And she respected that.
Don’t wait. Go before you are ready.
While on the road, what helped you through any doubts or struggles you encountered?
We found a community of cruisers who gave us plenty of help along the way, from teaching Elizabeth to fiberglass our water tanks to helping us re-wire our power system. Best of all, they encouraged us and built our confidence.
We also worked every day to do things better. At the end of each day, we’d sit in the cockpit and have a conversation: What did we do well? What could we have done better? Our focus on becoming better may have been because we anticipated times when Mother Nature might slap us around (which she did). But it also built our confidence. And each day we really did do some things better!
Some would say that we should never have left until we proved to be good sailors. Had we waited for that, we’d probably still be at the dock. We left before we were ready….and we’d encourage others to do the same.
How was your experience returning home? Did you struggle with reverse culture shock?
The hardest part of the whole trip wasn’t 10-foot waves breaking over the bow or the fish pot that wrapped around our rudder during a night sail. It was getting off the boat. We were out of money and out of time, so we had to go back to our land lives. But we loved our life at sea … we were learning to be better sailors every day … and there was a new island to explore just around the bend. Re-entry was really tough.
Reflecting on your sabbatical, what insight did you gain?
Desire outranks skill and experience. If you really want to do something, you’ll learn what you need to know. It won’t be pretty, and you’ll make lots of mistakes. You might even be afraid.
Bottom line for us: We learned to be brave.
How did you apply lessons learned from your experience to your life and work now?
We make fast decisions. On the boat, all kinds of things happened – the wind picks up, that darned current is stronger than anticipated, the weather forecast turns out wrong or the jib is jammed. Should we reef the sail, turn around, or plan on entering an anchorage after dark? We learned to take in the information and make the best decision we could, because we had to.
We also learned that changing a decision or reversing a decision is no big deal. So what if you’ve got 8 knots under your keel and you are almost to your destination when a pod of whale goes by, traveling in the opposite direction. With one turn of the helm and a couple of sail adjustments, you can be right there in the middle of the pod!
In our business, there’s always the unknown, and we’ll never have ALL the information. We make the best decision we can and adjust it if necessary.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of doing this?
Don’t wait. Go before you are ready.
Benefits of Using a Career or Sabbatical Coach
March 1, 2010 by Michaela Potter
Filed under Benefits, Contemplating, Featured Posts
What are the benefits of a travel sabbatical and what types of activities do you recommend to your clients?
I think the greatest benefit of travel sabbaticals can be summed up by one of my favorite quotes from travel writer Pico Iyer: “Travel is like love: It cracks you open, and so pushes you over all the walls and low horizons that habits and defensiveness set up.” When we are home, we can begin to define ourselves by our routines and labels (i.e. our careers, our consumer habits, etc.) For example, I’ve had clients come to me and say “I’m a top-level executive consultant with 15 years delivering Six Sigma expertise to tech firms in Silicon Valley” or “I’m an eco-conscious soy-latte-drinking, Prius-driving reusable-grocery-bag-toting Yoga nut!” All good stuff, to be sure…but not who these people really are at their core.
In terms of what activities are best for a sabbatical, that is a very personal decision and depends on the individual client – each person has different needs and wishes for their time off and we do a lot of coaching around what exactly that might look like. Some people need adventure and adrenaline; white water rafting, sky diving and bungee jumping. Other clients want to completely disconnect and relax during their time off; get rid of their Blackberry, sit in a hammock and just read for weeks on end. Some need to reconnect with their passion or their work; to that effect, some of my clients have chosen to volunteer their professional skills during a sabbatical (i.e. teaching English or participating in a medical or dental mission trip.) As a Sabbatical Coach, I feel that determining what you want and need from your trip before looking at where you might travel is the first essential step in making any sabbatical a great success.
“Tara, I just wanted to let you know how impressed I am with your coaching. I can barely believe that I am currently taking a 12 month career break and have just returned from a trip through Cambodia which was the most amazing experience. Before we started coaching together, I had been working flat out for 25 years and figured that I deserved a break – it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I went to Cambodia with the following in mind, ‘Can I learn to judge the quality of my day by how much I have noticed, rather than by how much I have accomplished?’ The work we did around shifting perspectives and setting those types of intentions made a huge difference.” – John K.
What are the benefits of using a career coach when planning/returning from a travel sabbatical?
One of the other great benefits of long-term travel sabbaticals is having time and space to examine who we are and what we truly want out of life. It sounds like a simple concept but in reality, it can be completely revolutionary. My clients begin that process of deep self-reflection and discovery before they even leave for their trip. I can’t tell you how many clients have come to me saying “I’ve never even taken the time to look at what I want or how I feel”. Coaching gives them that time and space as well as a powerful advocate and partner in that process.
When clients work with me, they get:
- Clarity about what they really want and need to get out of their trip
- Concrete goals – a “game plan” of how to go about making that trip of a lifetime into reality
- A passionate advocate who is in their corner at all times, helping them stay accountable to their dream and move forward step by step with planning
- Someone who has “been there, done that” and understands what it takes to realize this type of undertaking (and also the rich rewards of seeing it through!)
When returning from a sabbatical, working with a coach can be a huge advantage, easing what can often be a jarring transition period during repatriation. People are often shocked to find that the most challenging leg of their journey can actually be coming home. Repatriation can be exhilarating and overwhelming at times; disappointing and even depressing at others. People returning from a long stint traveling or living abroad sometimes feel that nobody can relate to what they have been through. Re-entry Coaching helps my clients get the same clarity, concrete goals and advocacy that pre-travel coaching gives them but in the case of repatriation, we are working towards helping them settle back into their life at home.
“With 2 top business degrees and a successful 7 year career in Brand Management, I took a year off to live in Spain. Everyone thought I was crazy to leave a great career (even for just a year), but I knew it was right. Coaching with you helped me put aside other people’s opinions in order to do what was right for me and kept me on track during the long, often overwhelming preparation process leading up to my sabbatical.
Over the course of my year off I learned Spanish, traveled around Spain, Europe and Morocco and met my husband. We moved back to the states together and I came back energized, in love, bilingual, and with many more career options (more because I had shifted my perspective, not for any particular skills that I acquired). I’ve transitioned to flexible freelance work, I’m working on getting certified as a Coach, and I’ve also gotten certified as an ESL teacher. This past summer, my husband and I took time off, which included teaching ESL in Poland. Another amazing experience! I couldn’t have done it without you.” – Kelly A.
Have you ever used a career coach or thought about using one? Tell us your thoughts!
