HOW TO: TRAVEL THE WORLD

The Goal: Travel by air, land and sea to new locations all over the world. No place is off limits.

Some might call us crazy, actually, some have but we're ready for it. Planning a trek around the world is a tad more difficult than we thought. We're currently in the process of doing so and thought "why not make a blog post about it". We're positive enough people are in the same position we are or are at least thinking about it.

We are leaving March 22nd 2016 and aren't planning on come back. That means a few things need to be settled beforehand.

1. Save money. This is your first step, save as much money as you can in anticipation to your departure date. You will be needing some front heavy cash flow when you get started. There are no comp trips, free hotels and flights when you are fresh out of the gate. These are some of the expenses we encountered before we even started packing:

• Flight costs

• 3 months of Air BnB rentals (great service but you have to rent in advance if you want quality places without the jacked up prices)

• Insurance coverage

• Full medicals (including dentist, blood work, shots, physicals, eye exams, etc..)

• Full medical for Terremotto (Microchip insertion, all vaccines, rabies shot, neutered, blood tests, medical check up 10 days before departure)

• Visa applications (including the Dog)

• Renew passport, drivers license, health card

• Get international drivers license

• Cancellation of subscription contracts (cable, phones, internet, etc..)

• Storage (for the stuff you simply can’t sell)

• Travel gear (luggage, adapters, camera, gopro, etc…)

• Car rentals

2. Create a source of income. Your first source of income is selling anything that has value that is sitting in your home. Afterwards, you will be needing income to keep you going. Thankfully, we have that covered. We own a digital marketing company that allows us to work anywhere there’s Internet (thank you Internet Gods). We have clients peppered all over and hopefully we get a few more through out our travels. Check us out at www.socialtheorem.ca. Unfortunately, not everyone is setup this way, however, everyone does have a skill set that can be applied and generate the same circumstance as us. You can play the financial markets if you are good with numbers, if you are sociable then bartending or serving is for you, if you are a strong writer, freelance journalism/writer is for you. Hell, you can even teach kids English all over the world if you wanted to.

3. Storage. If you're like us and can’t keep your things at your parent’s house because your younger sister needs 5 closets, you need to find a storage solution for all the things you can’t give away to the poor or sell. There are multiple solutions from storage unit to mobile plastic boxes all of which have pros and cons. My suggestion is to google (google is your best friend) storage solutions in your city and analyse your options.

4. Address. If you sell all you have, you will no longer have an address, it is the same if you rent your place. Unless you can change your legal address to the house of a sibling or parent, we recommend a UPS address. Easy, affordable and convenient.

5. Banking. If you intend on travelling the world and are coming from Canada (like us), then the “monopoly” money will not get you too far. If you are from anywhere else, you might fare a bit better (depending where you are from – except you UK with your strong GBP) but you will still get hit with processing fees, exchange rates and greedy markups from banks and credit cards. Our solution is that we opened a bank account in CAD, EUR, GBP and USD with a corresponding Credit Card in that currency. We charge all our clients using PayPal Pro World Solutions in their own currency which gives us cash flow in different currencies which ultimately leads to zero losses on exchange rates. Please be aware that not every bank offers this and that even if they do, they might not have all the credit cards you need. You will need to look at independent credit cards and even in some cases, prepaid credit cards.

6. Taxes. Taxes and death, no one escapes even if you are a nomad. Hire an accountant or bookkeeper and provide them with a copy of all necessary documents for filing your taxes every year. He will advise you on how the process will work since you are out of the country and might be without constant income. Even if you make zero dollars, you still need to declare it and file it.

7. Visas. Did you know that going from one country to the other in Europe no longer counts as an exit? Europe is now classified as the Schengen Area and you can’t just lounge in 90% of European countries for more than 90 days out of 180 (unless you are a member of the zone). Being a UK, Australian, US or Canadian citizen, you can get into pretty much any country but you should plan your itinerary carefully and always verify what is needed for entrance into any country as well as the limit of time you can spend there. You can always get extension visas (even in the Schengen Area) but there are no guarantees. Stay tuned for a blog post just on how to circumvent the Schengen limitations.

8. Travelling with your pet. Stay tuned for a blog post just for this. This is by far the most complex of the situations we had to deal with.

9. Car Rental. In Europe, you can either fly, take a train, rent a car or do a lease (with a French car manufacturer). Stay tuned for a full blog post on this topic.

10. Up to date. Make sure all your affairs are squared away (no outstanding bills or issues – they can get messy when you don’t know about them), all your personal licenses, passport and cards are up to date, your banking is current, your address has been changed to reflect your new arrangements, medical files, etc..

11.Pack light. Lost luggage, extra luggage fees, trucking along 200lbs of luggage, etc… is no way to travel, travel efficiently with good luggage and what you need, not what you want.

12. Plan ahead. When travelling, expect the unexpected. Flights change or even get cancelled, you might miss a connection, delays occur, you might get lost or run out of gas. All of which is why you should always plan ahead, inform yourself, do some research and be organized. Have hard and digital copies of everything, understand your agreements, be mindful of time changes and check in times.

13. HAVE SOME FUCKING FUN!

#Travel