Location Independent Professionals

5 Things Our Four Month Old Could Teach You About What It Takes To Become Location Independent

Lea Woodward — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:39:16 +0000

Most of you will know we’ve been on a pretty wild ride over the last few months, thanks to the little bundle of joy above (the one on the left)…and in less than a week, we’re about to head off on our first location adventure with the littlest LIP in tow.

Like most new parents, we’re constantly amazed by each new development Mali displays – what’s amazed us the most are the things we’ve re-learned by watching her grow, adapt, evolve and feel her little way around this big wide world. Things that, over the course of time, we forget or become conditioned in such a way that we lose those natural behaviours.

Unfortunately some of those behaviours, mindsets and approaches are things that could be the key to becoming location independent…and if you no longer possess them, maybe this is a timely reminder to re-learn them:

Living in the present

I’m not sure how much of a memory young babies have – but they certainly rarely have any idea of what’s coming up in their life. Most of their time is spent living in the here and now, not worrying about what’s past nor what’s coming but simply what they’re doing right then, right now.

Takeaway lesson: It’s a great lesson to heed when it comes to creating your location independent lifestyle. No need to worry what’s past, nor what lies ahead – simply focus on where you are now and the very next step you need to take.

Focus on your circle of control

I often wonder whether it’s frustrating to be this little being with no control over where you go, what you do or when you eat/drink. There are very few things our little babe can control for herself at the moment – and she’s only just learning to control her hands enough to reach out & grasp things in her reach. She doesn’t seem to get too frustrated at this – in fact, she’s a pretty happy-go-lucky, chilled out little thing. She accepts what she can do and does it with relish. Again and again.

Takeaway lesson: There are some things you can control and many you can’t. To avoid frustration and stress, it’s only useful to focus on controlling those you can realistically and feasibly control (your income & your location for starters); and let those things be, that you can’t control (other people, the weather, a country’s internet access). If you can apply this concept to your life, you’ll likely find your quest for location independence becomes a lot less frustrating.

Learning is a game

The munchkin learns, grows and develops new skills through the games we play with her – at present her whole life probably feels like one big game. It doesn’t matter if she wins or loses (in fact, almost 100% of the time she wins in some way or another), the most important thing is that she’s having fun and constantly developing.

I’m not quite sure when learning becomes all serious for most people – probably when they hit the education system and are subject to tests, assessments and bandings. For anyone wanting to become location independent, there is usually a whole raft of new skills to be learned.

Takeaway lesson: By treating new skills development & learning as a game rather than a serious “must do” to cross off your list, you’re likely to create a far more fun and enriching experience than pressuring yourself to skill up in the shortest time possible. In fact, by treating your quest to become location independent as a game rather than an uphill battle, you may find the journey and the experience more fun than you were expecting.

Leverage your USP

Ok, so not all of us have hair which stands on end like it’s been electrified and is almost 10cm long at just 4 months old but you gotta make the most of what you’ve got! It’s the hair which sets our 4 month old apart from all others – the fact it gets us free coffees almost anywhere we go is fantastic!

Takeaway lesson: I appreciate that this is quite beyond Mali’s (or our) control but that doesn’t matter – it’s a USP and it sets her apart. When it comes to your location independent business, you’ve got to have a USP. You can’t be yet another Wordpress web designer or one of the thousands of aspiring travel writers just hoping to be noticed.

You’ve got to set yourself apart in some way in order to carve out a market and a living for yourself. You may choose to do this by being selective about the clients you serve or by packaging up your products/services differently from everyone else. However you decide to do it, make it work for you.

There’s No Such Thing As Failure

In her short time on this Earth, Mali’s become accustomed to failure. She tries & fails frequently to roll herself off her tummy when she’s had enough tummy time, she tries & fails frequently to sit up from a supine position (those mini sit-ups get her halfway there but not all the way!) – in fact, she tries & fails at multiple things a number of times a day!

But that doesn’t stop her from trying just one more time. Not yet aware of the concept of success or failure, all she knows is to keep trying – and she keeps on doing just that.

Takeaway lesson: In your quest for location independence, you’ll probably experience failure at least once if not multiple times along the way. In fact, most of you probably have already – I know we certainly have.

The trick to succeeding is to keep on trying. Imagine if you had no concept of failure – you knew only one way…to keep on trying. How powerful would that be? You literally couldn’t fail. Ever. Not a bad mindset to have, is it?

The Official Location Independent Blog Carnival (with a twist!) #2

Lea Woodward — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:51:08 +0000

Image by michibanban

Welcome to the 2nd edition of the Location Independent Blog Carnival (with a twist!)…what’s the twist?

As always, we don’t just feature the best articles submitted to the carnival but we also feature some of the best new projects launched by members of our community in the “Project Promoter” section – giving you an opportunity to see what everyone else is up to.

Without further ado, here are the best of the best…

The Blog Carnival

Audrey from Uncornered Market presents: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Travelers

Nicolas from 52ndWest.com presents: 10 Useful Tools & Tips To Help You (Better) Work Remotely

Rob from Adventure Rob presents: How To Stay In An Australian City Cheaply

David from Adventures of a Barefoot Geek presents: Paddling Through Life

The Project Promoter

Who: Alan Gould

The Project: China Kidz

Alan & Lyn Gould are an English couple who have been going to China for short periods since 1994 and have now taken early retirement to serve Chinese orphans full time in China. They have lived in Luoyang, China since November 2006 and until January 2007 worked as unpaid volunteers for another charity caring for very sick, dying babies and children in two special units in state run orphanages.

The Butterfly Home is China’s 1st Children’s Hospice and Community Palliative Care Service and ChinaKidz will provide children’s palliative care services in China’s first specialist Children’s Hospice unit, in Changsha. Government Officials have invited ChinaKidz to co-operate with the Children’s Welfare Institute to implement a children’s palliative care service for abandoned children as well as for families, aiming to support them and avoid the pressure to abandon their sick baby/child. This is an exciting and groundbreaking project in China; even in many other parts of the world children’s hospice services are not available.

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Who: Andy Hayes

The Project(s): Sharing Travel Experiences & Travel Online Partners

Sharing Travel Experiences is a relaunch of my travel consumer website. We have the same good stuff as before but with even more new features, including a free travel recommendation tool (in case you can’t decide where your itchy LIP feet should head next) and a travel concierge (for those road warriors who can’t be bothered to deal with the booking details).

Travel Online Partners (TOP) is a resource for small businesses looking for help with online technology. While the focus is on travel and tourism businesses, any small business who wants to use the Internet as a business tool will find the guides, services and information of use.

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If you’d like to take part in the next Blog Carnival, submit your entries here >>>

The Official Location Independent Blog Carnival (with a twist!) #1

Slow & Steady Wins The Race: An Interview About A 3 Year Journey To Location Independence

Lea Woodward — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:46 +0000

Image by mikep

The notion that “all good things come to those who wait” is not one that sits well with lifestyle designers and anyone aspiring to become location independent. If you, like me, want something – you’ll probably want it now. In fact now is not soon enough – yesterday is better!

But if you want something badly enough, you’ll do what’s necessary to get it – and that’s exactly what the couple we feature in today’s interview did.

We’re always talking about lifestyle design and location independence being a journey – well, the 3 year journey that Danielle & Josh share with us today might sound familiar to many of you…and I hope will serve as inspiration that, no matter how far away you think you are, if you keep at it, it will happen for you too.

Where did it first start? What are your professional backgrounds?

Our journey to becoming LIPs started almost three years ago. My boyfriend Josh and I had made the decision to move out of Canberra, the National capital of Australia, a place where people either worked directly for the government, or for a business that supported it in some way shape or form.

We had both had a taste of life as public servants (I managed to stick it out for a whole three months), which we had vowed never to return to, and had begun dabbling in other areas.

Josh had been messing around with computers since he was a little kid and his passion for web development was already seeing some results. I was not sure what I wanted to do, but was making some money as a bookkeeper while I figured it out which was helping me afford night courses in business and marketing that I hoped would come in handy one day.

The only problem was, while bookkeeping can be done just about anywhere, for web developers in Australia, the interesting projects were mostly based in Sydney or Melbourne so for Josh to progress much further, probably meant moving to one of those places.

With Sydney only two hours from Canberra, and not a place either of us were particularly drawn to, much to the horror of my mother, we picked Melbourne, arriving on the 12th January 2007, and within a month had found a cheap place to rent and were settling into new jobs, neither of which paid as well as ones we had left behind, but at least they provided a steady stream of money into our accounts.

Sounds good – steady income, ok jobs. What was wrong?

Unfortunately, the money we were earning started burning holes in our pockets as we searched for things to spend it on, not particularly out of necessity but out of an ingrained sense that it was what was expected of us as working adults of a certain age and income bracket.

Sure, some of the things we bought were necessities – my old futon was a smidge too small for Josh’s tall, lanky frame (he had to sleep diagonally so that his feet didn’t hit the end) and our washing machine needed a well timed kick half-way through a wash cycle, otherwise it just sat there full of water.

But when we began collecting random kitchen appliances (popcorn machine, anyone?) that barely fit the tiny amount of cupboard space we had and all sorts of other random bits and pieces, we figured we better find something sensible to invest in before we frittered away all our hard-earned money.

What steps did you take to help better manage your finances? Why did you buy a house?

We set some financial goals, reeled in our spending habits and stuck to a budget and got to work saving for a deposit on a house.

Fast forward a year and, having discovered we quite enjoyed the challenge of seeing how little we could live off each month, we managed to build up a tidy little deposit and were ready to purchase our first property. Our weekends quickly turned into a seemingly endless procession of open homes (I’m pretty sure some of the real estate agents thought we were stalking them), until we finally picked a place that could be rented out at a rate that just about covered the mortgage expenses.

Buying the house definitely helped us establish good saving habits though, and soon enough we were able to build up a bit of a safety net which gave us the confidence to step back a bit and give some serious thought to what we wanted our future to hold, while attempting to disregard the deeply ingrained notion that establishing careers, buying a house in the suburbs and settling down to have babies was the logical choice (sorry mum).

So once you were on top of your finances, what happened next? Why weren’t you satisfied?

The biggest frustration for me was that regardless of how efficient I was at my job, I was still obliged to be at my desk a certain number of hours each day which, having worked for myself doing freelance bookkeeping in the past, seemed like such a frustrating waste of life.

For Josh, someone who can get so involved in a project that he doesn’t surface for hours on end, the general lack of flexibility in even in the most casual of work places became a reason to look for an alternate solution.

So began the next stage in our journey…

Why the move to location independence?

Over the course of another twelve months or so, Josh took on more freelance jobs until he was able to work fully from home, and I ditched my office job completely when I realized that trying to negotiate a compromise with my employer was leading me no-where, and picked up a casual position in a bike shop that gave me time to take on a few more subjects, getting me ever closer to the completion of my degree.

By January 2009, with the economy crumbling around us, Josh’s work was showing no signs of slowing down, but the place I was working for was starting to feel the pinch and, being a casual, I was one of the first to go.

Luckily interest rates on our mortgage had also dropped while rents had continued to go up, so our property was providing us with a small but positive cash flow, meaning that instead of getting another job straight away, I was able to take on even more subjects.

When February rolled around we were both essentially working from home: Josh doing freelance web development and me finishing my studies online, and we got to thinking that since all we really needed was an internet connection to keep doing what we were doing, really, we could live anywhere.

Spurred on by the odd couch-surfer we had hosted over the past few months and their tantalising talk of exploring the world, we took action.

We set a date, bought our tickets, sold off or gave away all but a backpack each worth of stuff, waved goodbye to family and friends and on the 22nd of July, set off on a new adventure.

Where have you been on our travels so far?

We’ve spent the last few months traveling up the West Coast of America, stopping every few days at places with an internet connection so that I could submit essays and Josh could keep his clients happy (and we could reassure our parents that we hadn’t been eaten by bears), until we arrived in Vancouver, Canada where we plan to hang out for the next few months or few years, depending on how much we like it.

Three years ago I could not begin to imagine being where we are today, and trying to picture where it will go from here is equally as impossible.

I do know this though: the possibility of me sitting in front of a computer working nine to five for someone else at a job that bores me stupid , now seems as remote a possibility as living in an apartment in the middle of Vancouver once did.

Inspirational Destinations: An Interview About Location Independence in Bali

Andy Hayes — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:58 +0000

Image by sektordua

** This post was written by Andy Hayes. Find out more about Andy at the bottom. **

Today we have a special guest telling us about a new destination for your LIP roadmap: Bali, Indonesia. Telling us about this sun-drenched party paradise is Mike Henry, the brains behind the website Bali Expat, a fantastic resource for all-things Bali.

Mike also runs the blog Retire Young and Wealthy while on the road so he has plenty of free resources to check out. Did I mention that not only a Bali expert, he’s from Australia and spent 10 years in Japan and elsewhere before hitting the road and working for himself?

So, let’s start talking about Bali, shall we?

Why don’t you introduce yourself and tell everyone a bit more about you?

I am from Melbourne, Australia. I started blogging and making websites around 2005 and quit my job at the end of 2006 to travel and work on my websites. I make money from building websites and finding advertising opportunities like Google adsense and affiliate programs for those websites.

You’re based in Bali. What made you decide to relocate there? Do you find it a “difficult” country to be productive given the great weather and party atmosphere?

I was living in North Sumatra with my girlfriend, which was interesting for a while, but not somewhere I wanted to live long term. I thought there would be better chance to find business potential business opportunities there, as Bali has a lot of foreign interest.

I now live in the north of Bali, not far from Lovina in a small village. There are a few quiet bars in central Lovina, but there is not much of party atmosphere like in the south of Bali. It’s very peaceful which is conducive to getting a lot of work done.

I have been in Bali for around 2 months now, and have spent most of this year in Indonesia.

As a business owner, how has your experience been living in Bali so far?

I love living in Bali so far. I have had a couple of negative experiences, but I think you get that anywhere. For example, one time we took a bemo (something like a public bus, but actually just a small van). There is no fixed price. Locals of course know the right price to pay. My girlfriend asked a local how much the fare was and we paid that much. We were the last ones off the bus, with one other passenger.

We got off the bemo and about 10 minutes later he came back again demanding more money. We had paid the same fare as the other passenger who was last off the bus, but he said we had ‘chartered’ the bus. He wanted an extra 20,000 rupiah (around US$2) which isn’t much, but the guy was screaming at us. In the end I just gave the money, it was already late and I just wanted to get home. Like traveling anywhere, you need to confirm the price before buying anything.

Regardless, I have met some great people in a short time. Everyone in our area is very friendly and they really make you feel welcome.

You do need to be a patient person living here. People are very relaxed and it can take a long time to get things done. We had a bit of trouble getting the internet connected. It stops working pretty often, then there are frequent power cuts, which can be frustrating, but you do start to adapt to the slower way of life.

The people can be a little vague when you ask about something. If you really need something done, paying someone a bit of money usually works. There are official fees for most government services in Indonesia, like getting a driver’s license, visa and getting electricity connected. The problem is that getting the official fee can be a lot of work. Like getting a drivers license you have to wait all day and take a written test. If you pay the police or an agent a little more money, you can get it done in a fraction of the time. Similar to getting a visa and getting visa extensions. It saves so much time just using an agent.

Of course no-one wants to support corruption, but that is just the way so many things work in Indonesia.

Image by rollanb

Is Wifi readily available?

Wifi is widely available in tourist areas like Seminyak and Ubud. There are a range of internet providers depending on the location. Internet is generally faster and more accessible in the south of Bali

What’s the best way to get short term accommodation?

There are lots of villas for rent in the south of Bali, like in Seminyak. Many come with wifi, but they are not cheap. Ubud is also a good place for expats to stay and most guesthouses have pretty decent Wifi.

There are several places around Seminayak and Ubud that have notice boards where people post advertisements for accommodation. Any place advertised on the internet is usually overpriced. The best way to find a good house to rent is just asking around, like in the local warung. A warung is a kind of cafe/budget restaurant. Local warungs typically sell local dishes like nasi goreng (fried rice) and fried noodles and are a social hub. Everyone there has a brother/uncle/friend/cousin with a house for rent or sale.

As a tourist, what’s been your best experience so far?

This is going to sound like a bit of cliche, but living in a village outside of a tourist area has been in an amazing experience. Our neighbors have really been fantastic and they are such lovely people. Everyday they have some kind of ceremony. How many cultures can say they have something different to celebrate every day? There is an amazing community spirit, something which I think we have lost in the west, where many people don’t know or even talk to their neighbors. Even though we are not local to the area, the people have been very welcoming.

Image by sektordua

Any other insider tips for things to do while in Bali? Is it easy to get in/out/around?

It depends on your interests. There’s so much to do here, whether you like surfing, diving or want to learn to cook some Balinese dishes. I haven’t been yet, but I have heard some great things about Lombok and the Gilli Islands. I think it is interesting to try and spend at least a little bit of time outside of the tourist areas and even better to experience living in a village in Bali.

It only takes a couple of hours to get to the north of Bali from the south, so its pretty compact. There is so much to do, whether it is just relaxing on the beach or visiting new places, you will never feel bored!

Yes, it’s pretty easy to get around. There are shuttle bus services that go to different parts of the island. Most people opt for hiring a motorbike. Be sure to wear a helmet though, as accidents are common.

For other LIP’s considering a move to Bali, any words of wisdom or advice?

Learning to be patient is important and accepting that things operate different here. Like anywhere I suppose. Be respectful people’s religion whether they are Muslim, Hindu or otherwise. Religion is taken pretty seriously in Indonesia. People will sometimes charge more for things because you are a foreigner. Learning a little bit of the language and making local friends can help you to get local prices.

Andy Hayes is professional travel writer & photographer. For more Location Independent locations, head over to his blog, Sharing Travel Experiences.

For a range of travel guides, specifically created by LIPs for LIPs, check out our Little LIP Guides directory to find out more about your next location independent destination!

More Tips For Bargaining & Bartering As A Location Independent Traveller

Lea Woodward — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:00:13 +0000

Image by Vanessa Pike-Russell

** This post was written by Nancy Sun, one of the shortlisted applicants for staff writer **

In matters of personal finance there are two ways to positively impact your cash flow: increase your incoming cash or decrease your outgoing expenses.

In previous posts, Lea has highlighted location independence in itself as a means of decreasing your expenses – she pointed out that when you’re location independent you can take advantage of favorable foreign exchange rates and live in countries where the dollar, Euro, pound, etc. can go farther and perhaps even upgrade the standard of living you experience in your mother country.

As a location independent professional, you can additionally decrease your expenses simply by participating in a foreign country’s bargaining / bartering culture. There are many places where prices are not written in stone and it is socially acceptable – even encouraged as a sport – to haggle over an item’s monetary worth.

I encountered this firsthand in the night markets of China, the street markets of Vietnam, the souks of Marrakesh, and even at the summer street fairs in New York City. Through these experiences, I’ve refined my bargaining skills such that I recently confidently bartered down the price of a Persian rug to one-third of what was on its original tag.

Learning how to bargain not only helps shave the costs off food and souvenirs, however. These techniques can also reduce the costs of big-ticket items while abroad, like rent. Lea has previously written about this and emphasised “asking a local what they would expect to pay for the item you want” – this is definitely a fundamental in my negotiation toolkit.

Below are my top tips for getting the best price you can when bargaining & bartering with locals is required…

Market research is vital

This is an expansion of Lea’s ‘ask a local’ philosophy. Ask not only ask one local, but ask many. Ask local citizens, ask the area’s long-term expats and ask other vendors who sell the same product. Just asking locals can sometimes be insufficient because:

Merchants may assume that locals are on a different, perhaps lower socio-economic tier. Thus, they sell at a price they would never accept from a foreigner.
You may be buying something that locals never purchase, but would never admit to not affording or having. Thus the number the local quotes is simply a guesstimate of what he/she thinks a foreigner would pay.

Multiple data points can check and balance against each other. Use this information to come up with the your low starting offer and ideal price. You will incorporate these numbers into the methods below.

Buy in bulk

…and remind the merchant you are buying in bulk. Partner up with someone who wants to buy the same item or at least something from the same merchant. After asking the price of just one item, you can follow up with: “And what if I buy two? Or three?” – giving them an opportunity to offer you a deal. You can then start haggling at the ‘deal’ price as his high starting point instead of the original ‘price for one’.

This technique also works when negotiating rent. Is your landlord just multiplying the weekly rate by four to come up with your monthly rate? What if you stay three months instead of one? Is he charging you a high monthly rate just because this month is high tourist season? What about after wards if your stay extends into a slower season – does your rent also decrease correspondingly?

Landlords and property managers often prefer longer term tenants because they don’t have to go through the stress and hassle of gambling with vacancies down the line. Inquire gently to help them conclude that giving you a discount now will save them headache and losing money later.

Never state your price first

This is a classic technique for people who are in the midst of salary negotiations. Applied here, you let the merchant set the tone. While you have a price in mind from your market research above, perhaps this vendor will make you a better deal because he / she needs to offload merchandise or make a quick sale for personal reasons. Give them an opportunity to do so.

If they insist that you name a price, state a broad range (with the low end at or below the lowest price gathered in your market research). Equally important is telling them that this is what someone else told you this item would cost. In case the merchant is offended by the numbers, claiming this is someone else’s range allows you to deflect blame.

Bargaining is often a game about ego and power. Presumptions about how low in price a merchant is willing to sell can come across as an insult and shut down negotiations entirely. Attributing your price to someone else (real or imaginary) diffuses the blow. In fact, the merchant may rebut by educating you on the object of your desire’s true monetary worth. This platform to speak may actually massage the merchant’s ego while giving you a window to continue negotiations.

When stating your price, always start low

This seems obvious, but I’ve seen many foreigners bargain by starting with their ideal price point. After naming your first price in bargaining, there is nowhere to go but up. Merchants will resist capitulating to your exact number often for the sake of ego – or for the eastern concept of ‘saving face.’ To give them room to ‘save face,’ start low, and let them bargain you up to your price threshold.

Know when to walk away

Note that I am not saying ‘Just Walk Away.’ If you’ve already spent a lot of time haggling a price down, walking away will not necessarily get you an ever better deal. Should you return, your item may be gone or your negotiations may start all over. This time, however, the merchant may be less receptive to bargaining.

I, for instance, once made the mistake of ‘walking away’ from a bike I really wanted. When I returned, the merchant said, “that was a one-time offer” and he prioritized helping other customers. He did not want to invest in talking to me a second time due to my track record of not following through on a purchase. Thus, I started off my second effort with a bad rapport and my window of opportunity to get the price down was even more limited.

Applying these techniques most recently helped me negotiate rent on my first location independent apartment. It was 20% lower in cost than what many long-term expats told me I would likely pay as a newcomer to the area.

In sharing these techniques, I hope you can experience greater success in – or at least be less intimidated by – the bargaining experience to be had abroad. Best of luck!

About the author: Nancy left Wall Street this summer to become location independent as a certified yoga instructor and professional freelance writer. She has recently parlayed her 10+ years of personal blogging experience into launching Happiness Pie, a blog about inspired living on and off the yoga mat.