Be an Outlier. Interview Series | Meet Dan, FI/RE'd & Slow Traveling
Imagine being able to spend time with someone who’s living the life you want. Someone who’s living a life that most people only dream of. From traveling the world, to working remotely, to being financially independent and retired early (FI/RE)… and beyond. In other words, being an outlier!
In the third edition of our Be And Outlier interview series, we’re excited to talk with Dan who fired his boss and has been traveling the world for over thirteen years! Along the way he’s met his partner Qiang Hui, started a vlog, created a successful online business, and teaches others how they can also retire cheaply abroad.
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Be An Outlier Interview Series
After several years of sharing our story on Screw The Average (be an outlier.) we thought it was time to ask others about their story living outside of the norm. Considering our way of living isn’t the only or correct way of living, we’re excited to see what life others have chosen to live.
Being a digital nomad couple pursuing financial independence, retire early (FI/RE) while traveling and house sitting full time is a unique way of living. It comes with many adventures, times of pushing our comfort zones, and significant personal growth.
We’re two outliers among many more and this interview series seeks to spend time with others that look at the world a bit differently. We want to hear their stories, learn from their mistakes, and walk away with a few good pieces of advice.
We’re glad to have you join us on this journey!
Each interview is unique in that responses are done by our guests in their own voice/writing. We’ve done minimal editing to stay true to their personal stories.
Meet Dan: FI/RE'd & Slow Traveling
Over the years of traveling and blogging we’ve met many great people and it’s always a treasure when we meet someone that approaches life in a way that’s different than most people. It’s a great opportunity to hear their stories, their thought processes and hopefully learn from them.
That’s how we feel about Dan! We met Dan through our friend Bryce and really got to know him better when we were interviewed by him on his YouTube channel, Vagabond Awake. Our conversation continued after the recording stopped and we realized that not only did we have a lot in common with Dan, but we also wanted to learn more about him and hear his stories.
We’ll let him tell you about himself, but let’s just say that if you’re looking to retire abroad, Dan and his partner Qiang Hui are a great source of information!
London, San Francisco, Paris, New York City, Athens and more?! Trusted Housesitters has allowed us to travel the world on a budget, but more importantly given us an opportunity to make new friends and have cute and cuddly companions along the way. Sign up and start your next great adventure!
Introduction
What’s the most interesting thing that’s happened to you in the last few weeks?
I just visited my 66th new country and Qiang Hui visited her 28th new country. We are in the Dominican Republic for a few more weeks and then we head to Panama.
I hit 50k subscribers on my Vagabond Awake YouTube Channel this week and two people we have never met in person before just walked up to us in the last 48 hours and thanked us for all the information and work we put into our YouTube videos and Retire-Cheap Reports on VagabondBuddha.com.
Tell us about yourself
I am Dan from Vagabond Awake, the YouTube Channel for VagabondBuddha. I am 60 years old and I have lived in or visited 66 countries in my life. But I wasn’t a true international traveler until about 14 years ago. Before that, I was just a normal guy living a normal life in the USA that took two weeks per year vacation, internationally.
Jumping on an Opportunity
Everything changed for me in 2007. I was working in the USA but wishing I could retire early and travel the world. One day, I received a call from a headhunter who asked, ‘Would you consider moving to India for 2 years to teach Indians what you do?’ I said, ‘yes.’
They flew me to India 30 days later for a job interview. Things went well and they offered me about twice what I was making in the USA. But since my real dream was to see the world, it didn’t make any sense for me to be in India for 2 years with only 2 weeks vacation per year.
The Power of Negotiation
So I said I would accept the offer if they gave me 7 weeks vacation per year. I would work 6 weeks, and then have the seventh week off. I would fly off somewhere during the 7th week and enjoy a one week vacation. Then I would be back at my desk a week later. Then I would work six more weeks and off I would go again. They accepted my offer.
At the end of the 2 year contract, they asked me to extend another year on the same terms, which I did.
“So in 3 years, I had 22 one week vacations.”
Slow Travel
At the end of the third year, I said I would extend only if they would let me work remotely on my laptop. They agreed and I worked for them for 4 more years. Since I was able to work remotely on my laptop, I started slow traveling the world.
Once I was working remotely on my laptop, I started staying in each country for a few weeks or months. I went wherever I wanted and stayed for as long as I wanted, limited only by visa rules. I called my lifestyle: slow traveling the world. It was only possible once I was working remotely on my laptop.
Leaving the Corporate World
Eventually, I got bored of the work itself and decided I wanted to work full time for myself. So I started a webpage called VagabondBuddha. VagabondBuddha teaches people how they can retire internationally in their favorite place or slow travel the world. Living internationally often costs much less than people think.
So I make YouTube videos and I write Retire-Cheap Reports about my favorite places in the world. I also post videos on my YouTube Channel, Vagabond Awake, showing people what life looks like in each paradise destination. My videos are on the ground in each country showing the life available in each country and giving the cost of living information.
Meeting Qiang Hui
In 2016, I met Qiang Hui in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After watching me travel the world for about a year, she said she wanted to join me. So in 2017, she started traveling the world with me. After a year or so of travel, Qiang Hui started HoboVentures.com and her own YouTube Channel.
Qiang Hui was a runway model before she started traveling with me. She has walked runways in about 8 different countries before she started traveling the world with me. Since leaving Malaysia together, we have traveled through the UK, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal, Morocco, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
What does a typical day look like for you?
My day starts out with a run wherever we are in the world. I walk out my front door no matter where I am in the world and I start running. Then we plan our day. We may investigate the town we are in, edit videos or eBooks. We also go on tours, review restaurants, do video walking tours of towns, and communicate with our subscribers via email and on our YouTube Channels.
We also make plans for future places we will visit next and make any travel or accommodation reservations we will need. All we do is travel now and report on the best places to live in retirement on limited budgets.
We also love to cook at home and we try to learn about and cook local cuisine wherever we are in the world. This requires us to shop for local groceries which helps us determine the cost of living.
Whenever we have enough data, we start making videos about each place we visit and I write Retire-Cheap reports for our members so they know what each place looks like and what we are spending to live there, whether rents, groceries, utilities, tours, restaurants, etc.
If you’re wondering how to travel internationally, or simply vacation nearby and not spend a fortune on airfare or hotels, then we’d like to welcome you to the world of ‘travel hacking’. See what credit cards we carry, and how we take full advantage of the points and miles we’ve earned.
Lifestyle: Slow Travel
How is your lifestyle different?
No jobs, no home, no cars, no boats, no bicycles, no toasters. We just wander around the world at whatever pace suits our fancy on the slow travel world highway.
And what led you to slow travel?
I read a book called the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. Everything about our lives is talked about in that book. We have the ultimate freedom. We even earn more money than we need online as we travel the world.
When considering your lifestyle, what are some of the biggest challenges you face?
The biggest challenge was finding who to listen to about how to make money online. There are a bunch of people that know how to sell courses but many such courses don’t deliver. So you spin your wheels and waste your money trying to figure out the holy grail of paying for your life as you travel the world. Once I had figured it out, some of my subscribers wanted to know how to make money online. They wanted to know the best course to take. But no course taught me how to do what I was doing. I had pieced together a frankenstein of ideas from various courses. So I didn’t feel comfortable referring people to courses that didn’t work for me.
So I created my own course called The Hobby Income Course and I gave it for free to my existing paid members as a bonus for helping me make my dreams come true. The hobby income course teaches how my hobby pays for my world travels.
And what have some of your biggest achievements been?
Making two to three times what I need to slow travel the world.
Receiving hundreds of messages per week from people that truly appreciate all the information we share.
Being able to fly home and spend time with my father and mother before they each passed away because I was free to be anywhere in the world without a time or money limitation.
Going wherever we want, whenever we want, for as long as we want.
What abut your friends and family, what do they think of your lifestyle?
A hint of jealousy from time to time but mostly they encourage us. Most of them just live vicariously through us, but we have made new friends along the way that are able to live like we do. There is a growing number of people that are able to live like we do around the world, like you two, Shannon and Sergio.
Thinking back, what’s the biggest mistake you’ve made along the way?
I should have started a few years earlier so my freedom would have come earlier.
How has the COIVD-19 pandemic impacted your lifestyle?
It has limited what countries we can travel to.
It has limited some of the information we normally gather because some tours are not running and some businesses are closed.
Our tool box is full of resources! From travel hacking to house sitting, digital nomad jobs to privacy and security, financially independent retire early (FI/RE) to entertainment, plus travel hacking (credit cards, miles, points, and rewards), and much much more…
Financial Independence, Retire Early – FI/RE
Can you tell us a bit about your FI/RE journey?
I invested in real estate. I thought I would need more money to retire because I thought I would retire in the USA as a base and travel the world from there. But after realizing that I would rather retire offshore as a base and travel from an offshore base, I slowly realized that I already had enough money to retire.
At about the same time, my hobby (VagabondBuddha and YouTube Channel) started making money. So now I have two cash flow sources, both that exceed my international living requirements.
What’s your approach to FI/RE?
Before I left the USA in 2007, I had a few real estate investments. Last year, they finally generated enough cash flow to pay for traveling and living offshore.
Additionally, I was able to save a substantial portion of my income which I was able to live on after quitting my consulting career in 2018. That allowed me to focus on my hobby business which finally was successful after about 2 years working at it full time.
So, by 2020, both my real estate income and my hobby income each alone exceeds what we were spending to slow travel the world.
Now that you’re FI/RE’d , do you plan on continuing to work (in any capacity)?
I will never quit working. I like figuring out new technology for my hobby business which helps keep my mind fresh. I may change what projects I work on based upon whatever I love most, but I can't see myself ever giving up the learning required to create new internet income streams. I also love the feedback we get when people are able to live their dreams with a boost from ideas we share. It feels like we are making a difference in people’s lives.
What’s one of the best things about FI/RE?
Best thing is how you can focus on whatever you want to. There is no boss to keep happy. You decide what needs to happen next and how to get it done and you go after it.
And the worst?
The worst thing about FI/RE? You delay gratification to win your freedom. That part seemed easy because you watch the pile of money grow. You feel the power of choice it is giving you as it grows.
But it takes time to shift out of that mode once you achieve freedom.
“When you know how to get something really great somewhere in the world for really cheap, it is hard sometimes to get yourself to pay more, even when you can easily afford it.”
Don’t miss our Ultimate Gear and Packing Lists! Whether you’re traveling long-term or going on a short vacation, we'll show you how to travel with a single carry-on. We share our packing lists (his and hers!), packing tips, and our favorite gear. Plus, we discuss what we don’t carry and why!
Advice
If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?
Imagine your dream life and go after it now. Don’t wait. You may not need to do what society thinks you should do next.
“Find someone living the life you want and model them.”
In general, what’s your best money advice?
Live on way less than you earn. There is true power that comes from saving money that will allow you better choices in your future. Drive an old car, ride a bike, take the bus. Cook at home. Don’t buy new stuff all the time. Keeping up with the Jones’ is for losers. Don’t be a follower. Blaze a path and be the example.
Read The Richest Man from Babylon first. Then read The Four Hour Work Week.
What advice would you give to someone starting on a path similar to yours?
Find someone living your dreams and copy them (legally). Don’t reinvent the wheel. Just run on a proven path. Watch my interview with Sergio and Shannon of Screw The Average. It is fun to see them live in person on a YouTube video.
How Can Can Our Readers Find You?
YouTube Channel: Vagabond Awake
My Free eBook: How I Fired My Boss and Traveled the World for 14+ Years
Travel Blog and Retire-Cheap Reports: VagabondBuddha.com
How I make Money Online: The Hobby Income Course
Facebook: Vagabond Buddha
Final Thoughts
There are many ways to approach the world and life, and it’s rare that we come across someone that sees many things similarly to the way we do. We feel fortunate to have met Dan and Qiang Hui and very much look forward to learning from them, sharing stories, and simply enjoying a friendship.
We have yet to meet them in person, but we’re sure that along the way, our paths will cross and hopefully we’ll share a travel adventure together!
