How I Escaped

Inspired by Tim Ferriss and the 4-Hour Work Week, but done in a way that’s accessible for everyone.

Since buying my first, of many one-way tickets, I’m increasingly convinced that opportunities to travel are, more often than not, at our fingertips and much more accessible than we imagine. This piece is my small way of paying it forward for all of those who have inspired me along the way.

Here’s how I did it.

Inspired

Definition: “Cutting the Cord” (v.) – Eliminating all unnecessary expenses, expenditures, and obligations in order to be non-location dependent for an extended period of time.

I was first inspired to really “cut the cord” when I picked up the 4-Hour Work Week (“4HWW”) by Tim Ferriss on my flight back from a trip to Myanmar and Vietnam. The two-week trip (using all of my vacation time for the year) was invariably way too short and only left me wanting more.

For me, the 4HWW was less about the productivity “hacks,” outlined by Ferriss, but rather:

1. I now had permission to pursue a non-location dependent, globally mobile lifestyle from someone who had actually done it
2. I realized that the long-term travel lifestyle was actually realistic and obtainable when you start living from a “cash flow perspective” as opposed to a “balance sheet perspective.”
3. Travel does not imply a laid-back, lounge-at-the-beach approach to life. In fact, you can be tremendously successful and do some really cool things, things that you always wanted to do, when you launch out from the normal work routine.

Inspiration from the 4HWW also fed into my personal “do what you can never do again” approach to life. Ok, I’m inspired. What do I do now?

Mobilizing

As tempting as it may be, hold on before walking into the office tomorrow morning and quitting your day job.

While leaving a location-dependent job is essential for cutting the cord, it is something that should be planned strategically and well-timed in order to make your traveling experiences sustainable.

In the 4HWW, Ferriss advocates his approach to cutting the cord via a “muse” business. The muse business is a hands-free, cash flow generating business that requires limited upfront financial investment and minimal ongoing time obligations. This business may not be your end-all, be-all personal passion, but it allows you to follow your real passions (travel, personal pursuits, sabbatical time away, etc.).

While the “muse” business is a great idea, the prospect of developing a hands-off, cash flowing business that runs entirely remotely is often too big a leap for many people (perhaps even myself as a entrepreneur several times over).

Let’s focus on the minimum viable product. Here’s how I started mobilizing…

Mobilizing Tip: One of my biggest lessons throughout my mobilizing process is that every objective is accomplished through tiny steps, over and over everyday toward your goal. Small choices add up. For example, you can’t expect to have pile of money appear out of nowhere if your lifestyle remains the same. This is a “hopes and dreams” approach, not an actionable plan. But staying focused on your long-term goal, it starts getting fun when you see these little steps add up. In the end, I was totally shocked about how much I had achieved step-by-step. As a point of reference, the process of mobilizing all-in took me approximately 9 months.

Cut Down All Unnecessary Expenses

As a young professional, I tended to spend more than I thought when money was magically appearing in my bank account every couple weeks. Just tracking my spending was enough to help identify areas to cut. It took discipline to budget. It took even more discipline to turn down purchases that I was accustomed making in my normal routine. But it was helpful to always keep the end goal in mind within the context that these austerity measures are only temporary.

Here’s what I cut out:

1. Eating Out and Entertainment: For me, this is probably the largest category that I was able to cut out. You can still socialize, but you don’t have to buy out the bar. Cook your own food at home. Cooking is a great skill to develop and fun way to unwind after work. Even eating out for work lunches can add up.
2. Domestic Travel: I passed on all frivolous weekend trips – from ski trips to wine tasting in Napa. A weekend trip can easily run you $1-2K. In my opinion, weekend trips are often one of worst travel options from an ROI perspective.
3. Small Daily Expenses: Go through your credit card statements to identify all the little daily expenditures that add up, from coffees, lunches, impulse buys, etc. Taking little steps over and over add up.
4. Anything That I Can’t Physically Take With Me: This is somewhat of a catch-all, but I didn’t buy anything that I wasn’t going to physically take with me on my travels. For example, I limited my investment in clothing, electronics, and furniture for the 6-12 months before I made the leap. If I wasn’t going to be able to take it with me, chances are anything I purchased would either be dated or out of fashion by the time I came back.

Start Saving

I made it a priority that when I received my paycheck immediately I would save a fixed dollar amount. I tried to be as aggressive as possible with my target savings rate and found that I was usually able to make it through each pay period on much less that I imagined.

Mobilizing Tip: Tactically, here’s how I approached my savings:

1. I set up a separate bank account so my “cut the cord” money was effectively partitioned from my normal checking and savings accounts.

2. I developed a spreadsheet to model out all of my expenses, bank account balances, assets, and liabilities (both short and long term). I would create a new tab each pay period and update my financial position accordingly. This was helpful in deciding my allocation between current obligations and my “cut the cord” savings. Updating my savings model started to get fun the closer I got to my travel budget requirements.

Mobilizing Tip: Strategically, here’s how I thought about my savings goal:

1. I needed a “do not touch” emergency fund of $5K+ for a plane ticket home and as cash flow to buy some time during a reentry period into life back home.
2. I wanted a buffer of at least 4-5 months of living expenses abroad after factoring in travel costs and ongoing obligations back home.
3. Based on my emergency fund and 4-5 months of living expenses abroad, my total savings goal to cut the cord was $15,000.

I still use my spreadsheet model when I’m traveling. I always want to know my burn rate and how much runway I have with and without my supplemented earnings. Knowing my daily burn rate was very helpful for me to think about my consulting work and how much I need to bill each day to break even.

Start Earning

“You know, I think we’ve learned something here today.

What is it, exactly? I’m not sure.

But it can’t be summed up by tour guides’ platitudes.

It’s a kind of wisdom that comes from jumping off the cliff, bouncing around at the whim of destiny, and coming out the other side.

Only you will know what you’ve learned.

But I guarantee you’ll want more.” – Anthony Bourdain

The real magic happens when you can make this lifestyle financially sustainable, better yet, profitable. I initially viewed my “cut the cord” time abroad as a 3-5 month stint, but Anthony Bourdain rightly asserts, you’ll want more. So plan for it.

Many people wrongly assume that you need a small fortune to launch out. You don’t. Having a modest pile of cash was critical to start my new, non-location dependent lifestyle, but savings alone is ultimately not sustainable. All you need is a way to breakeven on your monthly expenses, i.e. living from a cash flow perspective.

Here’s how I approached earnings to support my non-location dependent lifestyle:

The Muse: As mentioned, creating a cash-flowing, hands-off, muse business can be too much of a leap for most (perhaps including myself). While it’s great to have, I did not want this to be a prerequisite for launching out on my travels.

Working Locally: While it’s relatively straightforward to find work opportunities when I was out on the road, I had several apprehensions about working abroad. These were:

1. I would be back in the same location-dependent lifestyle, just in a different place. My objective was freedom from any one location.
2. Most job opportunities are paid in local currency and at prevailing local salary levels (meaning, not that much).
3. I was not interested in teaching English, seasonal or other relatively menial jobs.
4. If I was working full time abroad, I wouldn’t have the bandwidth to truly experience my new location or pursue other personal projects (language acquisition, etc.).

Remote Consulting:

“Fun things happen when you earn dollars, live on pesos, and compensate in rupees, but that’s just the beginning.” – Tim Ferriss

Consulting remotely while concurrently pursuing personal projects was the best fit for me based on the following considerations:

1. Maintaining a flexible work schedule.
2. Earning in U.S. dollars at U.S. pay rates while living in lower cost destinations provides leverage for pursuing personal projects.
3. Pursuing opportunities to work on interesting projects that were accretive to my personal and career development
4. Having the ability to continue working with people who I enjoy interacting with personally.

Mobilizing Tips: Here’s how I viewed my consulting projects:

1. 1. Build Relationships Now: Many, if not all, of my consulting gigs originated before I cut the cord as a way to earn money on the side to supplement my savings goals outlined above. In retrospect, working on projects with clients before I left was critical to develop their trust. If I could deliver when I was based locally, then my clients could trust me to deliver when I was 7,000 miles away. This may take some time, but ask around, hustle, check in with people who you know and enjoy working and interacting with on a personal level. As an ancillary benefit, this process also provides some unique insight into the skill set people value and for which they are willing to hiring you. (In other words, use the opportunity to discover what you’re really good at.)

2. Earn and Save Concurrently: Consulting on nights and weekends before I cut the cord allowed me to effectively “double down” by earning and saving concurrently. This often resulted in a $200-$500+ swing per weekend based on my consulting income and the money I saved skipping overpriced meals and entertainment.

3. Build On Strengths and Explore New Areas of Interest: In addition to the opportunity to focus on my strengths (what my clients hire me to do), I also view my consulting work as an opportunity to develop a diverse base of experiences. It also gives me the opportunity to dip my toe in the water in various industries and areas of personal interest. Steve Jobs noted, “You can’t always connect the dots looking forward.” I too like to view the diverse experiences that come from consulting as accretive to my overall skill set, even if it’s not linear or always immediately apparent.

4. Stay Sharp, Stay Plugged In: Ferris’s approach to travel via the “muse” business is optimized for minimal upfront investment and limited ongoing time requirements while abroad. While the muse approach is effective for allocating the majority of your time to pursue personal projects, I’ve found that consulting during my time abroad provides structure, mental stimulation and a good way to stay plugged in back home. Even if it’s a business conference call, at times it’s good to hear a voice from home on the other end of the line.

Set Up Your Access To Cash Abroad + Insurance Coverage

Two Rules:

1. Cash is King.
2. Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy

Mobilizing Tips:

1. 1. Confirm Payment Details: However you’re funding your time abroad, confirm that you can get paid. While confirming how I could get paid from my consulting clients was relatively straightforward, this is something I definitely wanted to have sorted out beforehand. The last thing I wanted were hard checks being sent to my old apartment when I was outside the country and thousands of miles away.

2. Debt Cards: This is big. Most of the places that I’ve lived and traveled are cash-based economies. In one of my previous businesses that involved a significant amount of international travel, I was paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year in banking fees alone. Don’t do this. Find a couple of debits cards without international withdrawal fees. I use CapitalOne 360. Charles Shwabb also offers an international debt card, but requires that your account be linked to a Charles Shwabb brokerage account. On average, expect to pay $4-5 ATM fee per withdrawal from the foreign bank. C’est la vie. At least you won’t get dinged with matching fees by your debit card company. Building in redundancy is key here. At a minimum have two to three debt cards from both MasterCard and Visa. You don’t want to be stuck with a Visa debt card in a one-ATM town that only accepts MasterCard.

3. Credit Cards: The same goes with credit cards without international fees. I use Chase Sapphire Preferred. While I do pay a premium ($85 annual fee), I feel that the better service internationally with 24/7 support, avoided international fees, rewards and other perks make the card worth having in my wallet. It is also important to have several redundancy options for credit cards with a mix of cards from MasterCard, Visa and possibly AmEx. I operate with three debit cards and two credit cards.

4. Online Banking: Confirm you have access to online banking and free transfers between all of your redundancy accounts. Banking with larger financial institutions is also helpful when dealing with international wire transfers.

5. Cash is King: Always have adequate cash in local currency and plenty of small bills. When in doubt, crisp, clean, unfolded $100 bills work anywhere in the world. At a minimum, I always like to carry $50-$100 USD for emergencies.

6. Research Local Idiosyncrasies: Research your destination for any unusual monetary quirks. When I traveled to Myanmar, they were still under U.S. sanctions and, as a result, not supported by the U.S. banking system. To finance my time in the country, I flew over with thousands of dollars of crisp, new United States bills strapped to my leg. While the financial situation in most destinations is not this extreme, in a surprising number of slightly off the beaten path destinations it’s often difficult to find ATM’s outside of major cities.

Pick a Place

Here were my criteria:

1. Affordable: I love London, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Tuscany, but they aren’t the most affordable places to live, particularly since I was just getting started in my travel lifestyle and unsure about the accuracy of my financial assumptions. While I actually spent time in London and Tuscany on my way to my final destinations, I didn’t view them as most financially viable locations long term. On the other hand, I didn’t want to relegate myself to third-world living conditions. I had to find a balance with my initial budget and expected income. I also didn’t want to spend all of my time working once I arrived (that defeats the purpose of going, see goal alignment section be above) or set myself up with a burn rate that was unsustainable. Day-to-day living outside of the U.S. and a handful of major metropolitan areas, is actually remarkably inexpensive compared to my daily expenses in Chicago. This is a frequent misconception. Living abroad is often much less than many expect. You can live well for $30-50 a day in most destinations. All in, expenses for my entire travel lifestyle were often less than my monthly rent back home. Additionally, actually living in one location, even if temporarily for a couple months, is also much cheaper than constant travel.
2. Aligned with My Goals: For the first leg of my trip, my goals were to better understand the culture and business culture in the Middle East and develop my language abilities in Arabic. (I didn’t speak any Arabic going into my trip.) To support these goals I needed to find a destination where:
   1. Middle Eastern culture was both intact and representative of the broader Middle East.
   2. The population was mainly native Arabic speakers in order to force me to use my language skills in daily life.
   3. The political situation was relatively stable and safe.
   4. The dialect of the Arabic spoken was widely understood throughout the Middle East.
3. Aligned with My Passions: To really dig into a destination, it needed to be a place that I was passionate about the culture and the people. Even though I had only spent a limited amount of time in the Middle East during my long layovers to and from Asia, it was a place that had captured my imagination. A place that sparks your interests, your passions and curiosities is a deeply personal question, but you want to spend your time in places that bring out the best in you. While traveling does bring out a certain amount of character building, you don’t want to be miserable based on your destination selection.
4. General Considerations: When making decisions on destinations generally, I like to spend time in places that are undergoing change, are frequently misunderstood by outsiders, is an intact culture that resonates with me personally, and is economically important during my lifetime. I also want to spend time in places that challenge me personally.
5. Making and Validating My Selection: Based on my objectives above, I selected Amman, Jordan. To validate this decision I spoke to a number of people who have lived there or spent a significant amount of time in the region. They were tremendously helpful setting my expectations about the cost of living, explaining visa issues, getting me plugged into expat communities, and letting me know I wasn’t crazy. I was also able to find information online via expat groups and social media sites.

Tying Up Loose Ends

On a tactical level, here were all of the loose ends that I had to tie up before before cutting the cord.

1. Apartment Lease: Fortunately, my landlord was incredibly flexible and the rental market in Chicago is very efficient. We were able to rent out my apartment relatively painlessly in a matter of weeks. While in my early days of planning my escape, I considered keeping my apartment as a fail-safe back-up plan. I am extremely grateful that I didn’t. This is an expense and an obligation that really needs to go.
2. Stuff: While I was able to trim down my travel necessities to a single carry-on piece of luggage, I still have possessions that I wanted to keep, including clothing, artwork, and my books. Find someplace to store those things that you truly want and need when you return. (Thanks, Mom and Dad.)
3. Gym: I incorrectly assumed my membership would simply expire until my gym started charging my credit card a few months later. In order to cancel my membership, my gym wanted me to mail a physically letter from South East Asia. Fortunately, I was able to get this resolved, but actively dropping or suspending any memberships something to keep in mind.
4. International Driving License: I applied for my International Drivers License from AAA before I left. You never know where you will be renting a car or motorcycle and this will come in handy. I actually used my International Drivers License fairly frequently when driving around the Middle East. Some destinations (like Bali) require an international permit to rent scooters. The application takes 10 minutes and costs less than $20. Before applying for my AAA license, I also got my motorcycle license so I can legally drive a motorbike anywhere in the world.
5. Vaccines: I got every vaccine that I could ($1,400 worth). I didn’t know where I might go on my adventures, but I didn’t want to by limited by my vaccines. The travel clinic should provide a little yellow book listing your vaccines that I carry with me. Some destinations to require verification of vaccine records when applying for your visa, specifically yellow fever. Depending on where I’m heading, I usually like to get a certain amount of anti-malarials before I leave in the event that I’m traveling in more at-risk places such as in India. I also pack 150-200 Imodium tablets before I go (I spend a fair amount of time in emerging countries, after all).
6. Travel Health Insurance: Full disclosure: I’ve traveled plenty of times to really weird places without proper coverage, but I would 100% urge anyone NOT to do this. I’ve gotten wiser in my older years, and travel insurance is not something I skimp on while I’m out of the country, particularly for extended periods of time. There’s very limited financial upside on the money saved on the unpaid premiums and major downside risk in the event of a major illness or medical evacuation without a proper travel insurance policy. At the very least, the policy is worth the peace of mind. My policy for 6 months was about $200 with a $0 deductible while traveling outside the U.S.. My GeoBlue travel insurance policy sits on top of my U.S. health insurance policy. If you’re not currently covered by your parents’ policy, you’re still required to have a qualifying U.S. major medical policy, per the Affordable Care Act. I also have a Health Saving Account (“HSA”) with an HSA Visa debit card. My HSA card has come in handy paying for smaller medical expenses while abroad.
7. Cell Phone: This is a complex issue depending on the carrier, whether your phone is unlocked, and what you plan to do with your existing phone number. Suffice it to say, based on my needs, I keep my iPhone as it is on the lowest plan available through my carrier (in airplane mode) and then have a dumb phone with my local sim card. I like to keep my iPhone with a U.S. carrier as my emergency “out” if things really hit the fan and I need connectivity that I know (hope?) is more reliable.
8. Digitize Documentation: I use an App called GeniusScan to digitize and upload to DropBox the following documents: my passport including all stamps/visas, vaccine records, international drivers license and U.S. drivers license, credit cards, checks with checking account numbers, visa application documentation, and any handwritten notes. Additionally, I uploaded all of my personal and consulting files to either DropBox or Box. I didn’t want to lose all of my files in the event that something happened to my laptop abroad.
9. Things I Couldn’t Totally Leave Behind: Expenses that I couldn’t totally eliminate were student loans, phone payments, and insurance premiums. These are just things included in my travel budget.

Actually Make the Jump

“Tomorrow becomes never” – Tim Ferriss

1. Set a Non-Negotiable Jump Date: I needed a date to jump, otherwise it would have kept getting pushed back. My Non-Negotiable Jump Date was my sister’s wedding after which I planned to meet my parents in London and Italy during their trip to Europe. Having a hard, non-negotiable deadline that was five to six months out made me focus on making things happen.
2. Finish Work Strong: Even though I was totally psyched for my travels, I knew leaving my current gig in a positive manner was the right thing to do. I put in the hours leading up to the end of my gig and documented everything that I was working on and how it needed to be transitioned. It’s a small world and people in your professional network will hear if you don’t finish well, plus I personally felt a lot better leaving things positively. Creating thorough documentation for my role was also a good way to step back and appreciate what I had accomplished in my previous role. One additional benefit of creating extensive documentation before giving my two-weeks notice is that it focused my resignation conversations on “How can we make this transition?” rather than “I’m out of here,” which my co-workers might have taken personally.
3. Full Disclosure: Even though my one-way plane ticket was booked and my apartment lease ending, I was actually surprised how nervous I was giving my two-weeks notice. Not to mention the “What did I just do?!” moment that came immediately after. But that was good. It was the first step of travels that truly forced me to accept ambiguity. It was my first big test. Congratulations.
4. Realize There is Never a Perfect Time: It’s true, there’s never a perfect time. Don’t let perfect timing be the enemy of done. For example, I was leaving at the start of summer in Chicago, the three months that make Chicago worth living in. Now I think back to all the things that I would have missed in my travels had I not made the leap when I needed to.

Jump Well, Travel Well

Don’t look back. Don’t have lingering obligations. Leave your apartment. Don’t have a date to return to your job. Traveling forced me to embrace ambiguity and realize the importance of fully jumping when I needed to make the leap.

Travel isn’t always glamorous. The discipline, hard work, and budgeting doesn’t stop once you’re on the road. Pursuing a non location-dependent lifestyle is often less about money you have in the bank and more about embracing ambiguity and being willing to make tradeoffs.

This is how I escaped. So can you…