Sophia from Minneapolis says:
“The more I sit in an office, the more I want to be location independent. … I feel this need to travel more, to explore, and not be tied to an office in Minnesota.”
In my last post, I told Sophia how she can see the world for the price of a Honda. Today I’m going to describe how I became location independent — a term that means “I can do my job from anywhere on Earth with an Internet connection.”
I’m also going to share why I believe being location independent is not enough.
Sophia asks:
Q: When you came back from two years abroad, how did you start earning money again?
(Background for new readers: I spent two years traveling through 17 countries. Read my story here, and check out part one of this series.)
Like many people, I assumed I’d get a “traditional” office job. Before I launched my trip I hemmed and hawed about how to explain a two-year gap on my resume. I probably delayed the trip by a year, under the guise of “I’d just like to save a little more,” because I was worried about how to explain this two-year gap.
How silly of me.
I’d be justified in worrying about a gap if I sat in my pajamas on the couch all day. But I did something kick-butt.
I prominently display those two gap years on my resume (which I keep updated, even though I’m not looking for jobs) because it makes me more memorable than 99 percent of the other candidates who have taken the standard college – internship – job route.
If there’s space left on my resume (depending on how I’m tweaking it), I also add bulletpoints that note all the skills I developed through my two-year trip: The ability to negotiate in 120-degree heat with someone who doesn’t speak your language. The ability to recognize when you’ve been scammed and successfully haggle for your money back.
If I was hiring someone, I’d want a radically self-reliant go-getter on my team. And a person who’s done something awesome – whether they’ve traveled extensively, launched their own company (even if it failed), or set a world record – is sure to grab my attention.
(Side note: Some of my readers have AMAZING debt payoff stories. Readers say they’ve repaid $25K – $50K in debt in one year. Brag about that on your resume or cover letter! That shows some chutzpah!)
Q: Were you planning on looking for another journalism job?
I’d be open to that possibility, because I love the work itself. But I can’t stand the idea of being tied down to one particular city.
This year alone — 2011 — I took 5 trips to New Orleans, spent one full month in New York, 10 days camping in Nevada, 10 days in the Caribbean, one week on Anna Maria Island in Florida, four days in Los Angeles, three days in St. Louis, two days in Sacramento, dropped by my hometown of Cincinnati and my former home of Denver-Boulder, spent a weekend in Chicago, and went to a festival in Tampa. I couldn’t have done that if I had limited vacation time.
Q: Did you know you wanted to be location independent when you came back?
You know, I think I had the “anti-dream.” I didn’t dream of being location independent, per se. I recoiled at the alternative to location independence. I shuddered at the thought of needing to “ask for time off” or “put in a request for vacation time.” Yeech.
Before I traveled, I worked at a newspaper and LOVED it. I loved my colleagues in the newsroom. Everyone was fun and hardworking and goofy. I wore flip-flops into work if I didn’t have any meetings, and I had a reputation for dancing to people’s ringtones. It was that type of place.
But I got two weeks vacation a year, and that drove me crazy.
Some people might interpret this statement to mean ‘I don’t want to work.’ Not so. I have no problem working long hours late into the night, as newspapers often demand when there’s a late-breaking story.
But it’s next-to-impossible to run off to Tanzania or Kenya or Russia if you’ve only got 10 business days to do it. THAT’S what bothered me.
I had no idea what I’d do when I returned to the U.S., but I was certain it would be something that would give me freedom to run my life the way I darn well please.
No One Gets Paid to Vacation
Bear with me while I take a quick tangent.
Some people are enamored with the concept of “paid vacation.” Paid vacation is a myth.
No one “pays” you to go on vacation. You get paid to work, and your employer pays you in installments throughout the year.
The agreement between you and your boss says: You pay me $X dollars to work 40-50 hours per week, 50 weeks per year. And my payments will be spaced out at regular intervals.
In fact, if I take my “paid vacation” at the end of the year, you’re paying me in delayed installments for work I’ve already done.
Whoever coined the phrase “paid vacation” is a public relations genius.
Okay, thanks for sticking with me through that tangent. Now to answer your question about how I created a location independent job:
A Windy Road to Finding Work You Love
Midway through my overseas adventure, my Dad asked me if I’d be interested in running our family business. He said he was nearing 70 and wanted to retire. And, well, I’m his only child.
Our family business is a small engineering firm with three employees: my dad, my uncle, and my cousin. (You know that stereotype about South Asians being engineers and programmers? That’s 100 percent my family.)
I protested that I’m not an engineer (or tech-savvy at all), but he insisted that all I needed was general business acumen.
I thought it was a great opportunity to run a small business, so I agreed. How often does someone say, “Hey, I already went through that painful start-up phase. Now the company is yours to run!”
Running the family business would give me the flexibility to make my own schedule. But I wouldn’t be location independent. I’d be stuck in one city.
In fact, I came home after traveling for two years because he insisted the company needed me right away. Otherwise, I would have tried to find work in Australia.
That’s as location DEpendent as you can get.
Big mistake! I lasted in that company less than six months and hated every minute of it. And of course, I fretted about whether or not it was “right” for me to quit our family business, especially in the middle of a recession.
But if you don’t like your work, you’ll stink at it. The six months I spent at the family business was a waste of everyone’s time: bad for me AND bad for the company.
“Follow your passion” isn’t just a cliché, it’s a practical, down-to-earth recipe for success. We enjoy what we’re good at, and we’re good at what we enjoy. We hate what we suck at, and we suck at what we hate.
I’m good at word-smithing and starting businesses. I could have launched any company that requires verbal skills: public relations, marketing, speechwriting, editing, even SEO (search engine optimization), which is fundamentally a game of words.
I narrowed those choices down to what could be done over the internet. Launching a public relations or marketing company might require me to physically be in a given city, and that’s more than I’m willing to commit to.
In other words: I designed my career around my desire to be able to pack my bags tomorrow and move to New York / Italy / London without interrupting my work. I put a location independent life first, and I eliminated career options that didn’t match that criteria.
Location Independence vs. Passive Income
I choose to become a freelance writer since its a natural extension of my journalism career. But I realize that if I trade my time (writing) for money, I’ll always be limited.
You see, right now I have location independence – I can work from anywhere with an Internet connection — but that’s not enough. I still have to trade my time for money.
My true goal is to create a stream of passive income that keeps me afloat. I can do this by owning income-producing assets.
But obviously, this takes time to build. Passive income doesn’t happen overnight.
I’m starting with real estate. I own one property that houses three rental units. My goal is to buy a new property every two years. I’ll need to get creative about funding this goal — hunting down investors or hard-money lenders. But if a goal is important, it deserves the benefit of creativity.
My minimum criteria is that anything I buy must create a positive cash flow even AFTER I pay a rental company to manage it. If the property can’t create enough income to afford hiring an outside manager, then I’m not buying an asset, I’m buying a job. That’s not what I want to do.
While I’m here (in Atlanta) I have no problem managing the property myself. I simply want the OPTION to delegate the work into someone else’s hands when I move to New York / Italy / London.
I’d like to own other businesses as well, but right now my focus is on finding my next rental property. If I’m serious about the new-every-two goal, my deadline for buying my next property is one year from now. I’d better get cracking.
Photos courtesy my boyfriend, Will Sisk. You can view his work at Fine Art Outdoor Photo.
Location independence is exactly what I’m aiming for. I figure that I have approximately 6 months, plus a few more depending on my saving habits, to have a location-independent income coming in. Wish me luck…
@Matt — Keep me posted on your progress! I’d LOVE to hear how this goes!
I especially enjoyed the part about putting your travels on your resume. Did you ever have a conversation with a hiring manager or someone like that about this?
I’m just curious about your real estate investments. Do you think this will pose a potential problem with being “location independent” if you need to be a landlord and property manager for these properties? It seems that might be limiting, but maybe you’ve already though about this and a solution.
@Jeffrey — Nope, I don’t see that as a problem at all. (re: How to own rental properties and be location indy at the same time). My boyfriend Will, who lives with me here in Atlanta, owns a rental property in Colorado that he’s delegated someone local to manage. And many of my family members who live in the U.S. go so far as to hire managers to oversee rental properties in Kathmandu, Nepal … though I might hesitate to go THAT far!
I’m sticking to domestic investments. Go ahead, call me risk-averse. LOL 
Nice interview!
Good one about using the gap as a strength.
Paula,
Now is the perfect time to buy real estate… falling prices and rock bottom interest rates (if you can get a loan). Long term it is a wonderful investment if you can put up with being a landlord.
@Barb — More than anything, I REALLY want to buy cash-flow positive rental properties right now when prices are low and interest rates are cheap (the rates are higher for investor loans or hard-money lenders, but that means 5 – 6 percent, which isn’t so bad). It’s a dream so big I can taste it ….
Paula your story is definitely inspiring. I’m having a bit of trouble though. Since being laid off in January, I’ve been pursuing a “career” as a freelance writer, and while things are steadily looking up, the fact of the matter is I’m still not making enough for a full time income. 11 months later and the stress of getting a “real job” is even greater than before. Our lease will be up in February, we have debt to pay down. It’s tough to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What do you suggest? I had stopped putting in applications and told myself I’d really take freelancing seriously, but I recently started putting in applications again. It’s truly the last thing I want to do. I would love to travel, and work from home, or anywhere with WiFi for that matter. I just feel like it’s not realistic for me. Any thoughts/tips?
@Briana — I wrote a whole post answering your question
Check it out: http://afford-anything.com/2011/11/18/give-me-money-finding-freelance-work/
Very inspiring post Paula! Finding work you love is so important, without it the whole location independence and passive income strategy wouldn’t work because you’d burn out so quickly.
I wish they would teach this stuff in school “finding the work you love”, the world would be a better place if people did what they love to do.
@Kanwal Sarai — I think its a shame that, when we’re young, we’re taught to be employees and look for a solid, traditional job. We’re not taught that we can take the reins and live unconventionally. We have to figure that out ourselves … maybe its self-selecting for people who take the initiative to learn it!
I’m so glad I found out about this blog! It is awesome! My husband and I spent a year in China when his job sent him on an assignment. It was a wonderful experience. I quit my job of 7 years in order travel to China and have no regrets. I also have no desire to go back to an “office grind” and would like to find work that allows me to be location independent. After returning from China, my husband took a new job for which relocated us 50 miles outside of NYC so we are renting out our primary residence. I’m in the process of starting up an Etsy store to sell photography images (taken by my husband in his passion gig), but I’m going to need more substancial income. What to do, what to do…
@TJ — That’s fantastic! I bet your year in China was incredible. I became interested in travel after I won a full scholarship to spend a month in Japan — it literally changed my life. And now that you’re living so close to NYC, I bet there’s a large photographer community (and art-buyer community) that you can tap for resources and info. What a fun new adventure!
Hi Paula,
After I left my job earlier this year (owing to the nuclear crisis in Japan), I had the option of taking another job back in my home country. But I had been contemplating on the cons of a salaried job for quite some time and decided that I’d take that opportunity to set out on my own.
For me, building a foundation for passive income was more important than location independence. I’m looking at it as more of setting up the passive income stream and then enjoying the benefits of location independence.
I’ve taken my share of risk there, and I have to get some cash flowing before long. Let’s see how things progress… I’ll be sharing periodic updates about that on my blog.
Here’s to true independence,
Cheers,
Mark
@Mark — I can’t wait to hear more about how you create passive income. Now that I’m location independent, passive income is my next goal. It seems so large and daunting — but then, I guess ALL goals seem that way before you achieve them.
Your plan sounds very reasonable. Conceptually, people would be wise to follow this path: purchase real assets and blend work with entrepreneurial efforts.
It really is a great time to buy.
I love the idea of being location independent, and being work independent. It’s just so much more flexible especially if aging parents or children are involved!
So what did your dad do after your 6 month tenure?
Being financially ‘secure’ does wonders for what you can and cannot do. I work for a big corporation, but under the stipulation that I can work from home and part time (or really anywhere, but with 3 kids, home is the only option). Had we not saved and budgeted so we could rely on just one income, I would be forced to take jobs that I probably did not want.
My husband must work locally so we do not have total flexibility yet,but at least we partially do. Having one parent available all the time has been invaluable, and if we made different choices, our lives would be much more stressful.
@Kris — Having that financial foundation in place is SO amazing! It really frees you, like you said. My boyfriend Will also works locally, so as a couple we aren’t completely independent. But I often take trips without him.
And he creates his own schedule, so he frequently builds long weekends for himself.
Actually, that’s also the answer to your question about what my Dad did after I left the family biz — he replaced me with Will, who is not only a civil engineer, he’s also as much of a tech-dork as they come — you know, the kind of guy who reads science magazines for fun. (I can’t imagine!) He’s also got great business acumen; before we dated, he grew a start-up from two people (him + a partner) to more than 30 employees. He’s a much better fit for running that company.
Location independence does sound awesome and I think it’s great that you actually make a point of including your travelling experience on your resume. I know a lot of other people who try to explain it away or ‘bend the truth’ because they feel the gap’s not going to do them any favours.
I have to say, reading this makes me so grateful that we have on average 26 days ‘paid holiday’ in the UK. It means that travelling is a possibility.
What a great post. It’s not a good time to buy real estate in Canada with higher prices, but I’m down with maintaining a higher savings rate so that you can build up capital for the future. I think that passive income is a myth; you need to actively build up the capital which means in some sense you’re always trading time for money. That’s fine, though, because compound effects mean that trading off a bit now can lead to much greater rewards in the future.
I loved the pics, too, they were the perfect complement to the story.
I’m with you on real estate. I’ve financed one house with a loan from my 401K and another from Prosper.com. I never want to get a traditional mortgage to purchase a home.
This was a great interview.
The freedom and idea of location independency really is great. If only it was a little bit easier to get that first 200k in captial to start devloping those income producing assets. But I guess such is the adventure of life.
@Ron — I heard somewhere that self-made millionaires, in interviews, often say the same thing: the first $100,000 is the hardest.
Awesome interview and great lesson for everyone to do what they love because it’s best for everyone involved!
Love this post, and your blog in general. It’s post like this that give me the confidence to truly go for what I want: to be location independent!
@Nicole — That’s awesome! Go for it! Leave me a note again and let me know how your journey to location independence is going!
Having lived in four cities with friends in all of them and family in one, I would love to be able to run a business where I could spend time in each and travel for vacation more often.
I have a side business that I haven’t put much effort into yet. It’s that amygdala! I always say that people with less education and fewer job opportunities are more likely to take the plunge to start a business. They have less opportunity cost.
One problem is that today, “entrepreneur” often means “can’t find a job” to the opposite sex. Ladies generally don’t like to date guys without a steady income.
UH2L
http://www.thingsivenoticed.com
@UH2L — Then you need to find a lady who understands the awesomeness of entrepreneurship! One of the things that I really dig about my boyfriend is the fact that he’s never, ever “had a job.”
It’s one of the reasons I started dating him.
Plus, if your lady is excited about location independence, you can become one of those amazing couples who start businesses together!
After returning from China, my husband took a new job for which relocated us 50 miles outside of NYC so we are renting out our primary residence. I love the idea of being location independent, and being work independent. It means that travelling is a possibility. Let’s see how things progress… I’ll be sharing periodic updates about that on my blog.
Paula, I hope this article will inspire ohers to take stock of what works for them and then to pursue their own dreams.
@Barb – I hope so too!
Paula,
Hats off to you for your decision to own rental properties. You may also want to look into section-8 properties in Atlanta as you can acquire them relatively cheap(around 40-50K), and you are guaranteed payments from the city of Atlanta.
Shilpan