Is A Nomadic Lifestyle Cheaper Than Living In One Place?
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The disadvantage is that I can't go across the globe, partly because it would take too long and partly because my boat and lacking sailing experience would make it a dangerous endeavour to sail across large oceans.
Nevertheless, I really like this idea. Could you explain more about how it works? I.e., what are the costs, and what skills are needed?
It's really not as hard as it sounds: Buy a boat and learn as you go. Holland is great for boats if you're in Europe - I found mine on http://www.botentekoop.nl and paid someone to help me sail it to Copenhagen where I live. The trip across the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark helped me get acquainted with how a boat handles, what you have to be aware of, navigation, signalling, etc.
When I got to Copenhagen I started disassembling a lot of the insides. A lot of boats seem to have an emphasis on having as many bunks as possible so that ten people can sail somewhere or whatever. This isn't really what you want when you're living on it though, so I tore down some bunks and built a proper toilet, kitchen, dining area and office instead.
I got a place at a nice harbour and found that the people there were really nice and had a lot of knowledge of what to do whenever I had a problem. Don't go for an upscale place, they are snobbish and aren't very helpful. I found a harbour with half pleasure yachts and half fishing boats, the fishermen know everything there is to know about boats, and they'll gladly help. Spare anchors, hydraulics, and fishing nets lying around is a good sign.
There is, of course some maintenance depending on what you buy. You can buy steel, fibreglass or wooden ships. Fibreglass is the easiest to maintain. Steel corrodes and gets rusty so it has to be painted every now and then, but not really a big deal. I wouldn't recommend a wooden ship - it's lots and lots of work and it deteriorates quickly if you don't keep it up to standards with oil, lacquer, polishing ans what have you. Every three years or so you have to get the ship on land and bottom-paint it. It'll take a weekend and cost around $1000.
I pay $1200 a year for the harbour where I'm living, and paid $30.000 for the boat. I spent $10.000 refurbishing and redoing it.
I'm planning on going to Berlin this fall, it's only a few days sailing :-)
feel free to e-mail me if you want to know more, my mail is in my profile.
How do you do laundry?
How much do you spend a year on diesel? How about on things like sunscreen?
How do you get fresh water?
Would you buy something like that? HN users would get it for free of course, just asking whether there's a market :-)
Say mixmax writes the ebook, and it comes in at x pages of general information. He could add a few pages on "how to catch fish at sea", and a chapter on "boat safety". Now that exact same book that was previously being marketed to the "boat-set" who want to know how to live on a boat can also be marketed to the survivalist movement that's growing (in the US at least).
Since he knows that people who are considering living on a boat as travellers have less discretionary income than your average survivalist, he can price the book to them at $9.95, while marketing to survivalists at $19.95.
He can then take the exact same book, add some information about how to make international calls while at sea, maybe some information about satellite technology and a few paragraphs about how to send and receive photos while out on the water and turn around and market the same book to people who are retiring and thinking about getting a boat to tool around on for a week here and there. Well, who wouldn't pay $19.95 for a book that tells you how to find a boat, the basics of repairs, how to do basic things when you're away for a little while, and it also tells you how you can send pictures to the grandkids?
Of course I'm making a lot of assumptions about the actual data here, but I think my point is clear(ish) - there are lots of people interested in the basic subject; and it can be spun a ton of different ways.
Maybe I'd chance it if it only cost a couple of bucks.
Don't get me wrong, I'd pay to learn about this. Ebooks just don't fill me with confidence.
http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Living-Aboard-Boat/dp/09398...
If you are not in the US it is worth getting one from the country you live in so it will address local concerns and regulations.
But that is just how affiliate marketing comes across to me. And that type of marketing seems to work on some people. So I think that you could probably be very successful with an ebook.
If I really liked the book, and was about to do some traveling, I would definitely buy a print copy. I like physical books a lot more than ebooks. If you don't want to find a publisher, you can self publish it. Lulu.com seems to have a good setup.
I'd definitely buy it -- and don't give it away. Your time and experience is worth money and even though I'm a heavy HN reader, I'll gladly trade my money for it.
- the mildly curious who wouldn't buy unless it was just a couple bucks (sounds like this is yummyfajitas)
- the obsessed who are desperate for more info and would probably shell out $50 for a great guide with all the info they need on how to actually change their life by doing this
You want to target the 2nd group, because they have a problem and are actively looking for a solution. The people in the first group are cheap and generally opposed to paying for anything, so you'll spend way more time and effort trying to sell to them than they're worth.
Also, to the doubters, the thing to keep in mind with things like this is that while you can find the info for yourself for free, it'll take you tens or hundreds of hours of research (I know). Why not just get it from someone who has actually done it?
When sailing that's another matter..
That being said, I'm not predisposed to sea-sickness anyways, so I may be a bad data point; my point is just that it seems that your system adjusts to the constant motion (you know, getting your sea-legs and all that).
All told, how much does it cost (in time and money) to live on a boat for a year?
I believe you're lucky for boating if you're in the Ontario-Quebec region, I'm unsure about the US. I'm sure there's good connectivity around the boarders for Ontario and Quebec, however I have read that a lot of canals in the US were abandoned because of rail. I think Canada kept most of its canals in service, probably because it was cheaper than building rail, because in some areas you'd never get a straight line of track without a billion bridges.
If you wanted to see all of Canada by boat, I'd probably suggest getting one you can haul by trailer because there's apparently a lot to see by boat on the west coast, lots of little islands and such. However, I seriously doubt there's any way to get past the prairies (you'd probably have to ask someone who lives in those areas). Also, you'd either have to get far south every year, or your boat needs to be pulled from the water, so there's probably not as big of an option of living on your boat here unless you spent a few months in the US riding it out.
There is something really cool about torrenting recent Johnny Depp movies using a Swedish website while you are sailing.
There are fishermen on the harbour, so I do actually eat quite a bot of fish.
If you actually care that much, you could always spend a bit more money and go solar. Boats is one of the few vehicles where solar power works well and has proven itself (for example, the first usable solar boat is thought to have been made in 1975). You also don't have to go just solar, boats have been powered by wind for centuries and the water generally has much stronger wind than land anyway.
I wouldn't doubt that it would be easy to go green and make your fuel cost zero.
Acceptable home maintenance costs are between 1 and 4% of the house value, however this doesn't necessarily extend toward the higher home prices.
Of course all these prices vary, some people pay ridiculous amounts for home maintenance because they can't do simple tasks and some people pay almost nothing because they can do everything themselves. However, I'm sure the same goes for boat maintenance too.
It's the mere fact that paying $4,000 in home maintenance of a house costing $250,000, and paying $4,000 in boat maintenance on a boat costing $50,000 that you live on.
I suppose your food costs would be significantly cheaper if you like fish though. Well if you're a good fisher. Personally if I had to rely on my fishing skills I'd probably die from blood loss.
I worked from Thailand for three months on Koh Tao, had a great experience and learned a lot, but at the end of the day sketchy wireless + drunk spring breakers really put a damper on things. In Argentina everyone I knew was supportive of what I was working on, and all my friends always wanted to know what was up, take me out to grab drinks at a tango club, go to a drum concert on Monday evenings- my environment made it frictionless to work on a
startup. (obligatory pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/copla201)
Being in Thailand on the island of Koh Tao, though, had the downside that 70% of the population turned over every couple of weeks, and the people that live there are there to escape from the world. Now, I completely respect that- if you're choosing between a 9-5 and scuba instructor on a beautiful Thai island, easy choice. And there's a lot of cool people who make that decision- however, those aren't the same people who are gung-ho on building a great business, or necessarily think that doing so is a worthwhile undertaking. It was an environment where just going to work was an exercise in friction.
That doesn't mean that I didn't head out to the cafe to make progress every day, or get to read up on the topics that allow me to build what I build today from the gorgeous Echo Bar, but it does mean that the environment wasn't conducive to building a startup. I saved money, I had some great experiences, and I wouldn't take it back, if only for the learning experience- environment matters.
Yes, you can work from anywhere, but that doesn't mean you should. However, as I write this I'm packing up my things to move to Budapest on Sunday- my co-founder is Hungarian and after working together online for seven months we're going to push to launch working in-person. The difference between Budapest and Koh Tao is that in Budapest there's already a support network in place- all the friends of my co-founder's who have already supported us at every turn. And it's that support network that's so crucial when building a startup.
It's ok to take on the world, I wouldn't work on anything that didn't take on the world, but you damn well need to have an effective environment to work in when you move halfway across the world.
It used to be possible for a good writer such as Samuel Clemens to simply travel the world and fund it by filing reports from abroad, or writing articles for travel magazines or travel guides. In a lot of ways what you are doing is similar.
However, do you know of anyone living a similar lifestyle that is not funded by writing, whether for the print media or its successor ? Perhaps by seeking out niche items in each place they visit, and selling them on ebay to Americans (perhaps through a partner still in the US) ? I have heard of people doing that in Argentina when that economy was worse off. Or by supervising the manufacture of something through mfgquote.com and its sales and delivery via the internet ?
It's good to see numbers that prove that it's possible to leave more cheaply in an idyllic location while still working on my start-up, blog, etc.
I wonder why more start-up founders don't take that option. What ties you to a specific place? For me, until recently, it was a relationship..
Also, not every one is ready to live somewhere foreign. Especially if they don't speak the language.
With respect to language, it seems to me there are so many ways to learn common languages these days, that this should not really be an excuse. Anyone can go on Bit-Torrent and download some language courses, and speak a language passably well in a few months... (well, unless it's a ridiculously hard language like Chinese...) Btw, for that, I recommend a combination of the Pimsleur courses, + a book about grammar, followed by reading a fiction book in the target language, before actually moving there.
yes, this helps quite a bit.
I moved abroad and have the hardest time explaining to people (principally family and friends back home) that I feel really, really attached to the city I landed in, and the little slice of life I carved out here. I miss being closer to my family, but sort of perversely I feel like I fit in a lot better here than I ever did in, e.g., the city I went to college in.
I make a distinction between "travelling" and "being a traveller." The former means you like to go places on vacation for a short time. The latter is actually living in a location for a while long enough to assimilate the culture, live like the natives, etc. and requires much more time.
Besides, who would feed my chickens while I was away :-)
The thing that dissuades me the most from a nomadic lifestyle is the inability to engage in long-term hobbies like planting/tending fruit trees long enough to enjoy the results.
So this comes to 800 pounds + occasional funtime = 1K -still below what they've calculated for most places. Are they really that bad at negotiation?
We recently came back to the UK for a few months and had to go through all this setting up of bills etc. again and were shocked at how much all the extras add up, which you just don't get when you live overseas in furnished rental apartments. I think many people would be shocked if they added up all these extra little bits too.
Also it sounds like you were buying somewhere, not renting. A furnished rental apartment shouldn't require buildings insurance, contents should either be part of the rent or not at all (as the landlord is required to insure their equipment by law - but not yours - you'd do that separately but you'd certainly have to do that anywhere else I've been), a TV licence is optional - you only need it to watch live TV and all the major channels have on-demand Internet equivalents that are perfectly fine unlike other countries you may have been (we're looking at ditching the licence when the Digital TV switch kicks in). I'm surprised you're putting phone, internet and mobile phone in there - unless you're flatsharing I'm not aware of anyone that would include those as part of the rent, especially mobile phones?
I guess my point is that it's not a like for like comparison to compare your rental costs in one country with mortgage + all inclusive of everything, even secondaries in another. Rather than defending it, and I appreciate it's a PITA to do what I'd suggest and may contradict what you're trying to achieve, I'd like to suggest that you write a followup comparing like for like costs with their equivalents and provide explicit examples alongside the benefits and drawbacks of each - e.g. being near the beach at Cape Town versus being near the beach at Blackpool.
As someone who does not have an Internet-based income stream (e.g. has a job) and has been close to pulling the trigger on this several times, I think you have to consider why you want to be in a different location. I think I was thinking that I'd do a radical lifestyle/social makeover (e.g. all-in = quitting job+going abroad) but that probably would not be the case.
Just stay at a hostel for the first month in the new country. You'll meet a ton of people from all over world, including some who will be staying in the country, so you'll have friends for at least six months. Hostel folks tend to move around a lot :)
For meeting people, it'll be lifechanging just to see how easy it is- "where are you from?" "how long are you traveling for?" "where are you going next?" "where have you been so far?"
Everyone's in a foreign country, everyone's looking to meet people, so everyone makes themselves super easy to meet. If you're in a good hostel (I'd HIGHLY recommend Hostel Suites Palermo in Buenos Aires, ~$10/night) then this won't be something you'll consciously be thinking about, it'll just happen.
I worked from the patio of the hostel the first day and wound up going to dinner with eight folks from all over the world, by the end of the night you'd have thought we had all known eachother for years. Give it a shot!
I'm sure there are certain time savings from not having a long term domestic existence, but it seems like overall you're spending a lot of time to make the nomadic life work. I'd like to see this time cost broken down in a similar fashion.
www.cocovivo.com