Financial Case Study: Liesbet Collaert – Interview on The Professional Hobo
I’m excited to announce something entirely different and unique today…
Many of you know that I post monthly and yearly expense reports on this blog, without any secrecy. Yet, I have never disclosed how much money I/we actually make in a year. I’ve also been pretty vague about how we have been able to afford our nomadic lifestyle over the years and what is required to financially sustain ourselves.
All this and more insights can be found on Nora Dunn’s website The Professional Hobo, where I take part in her Financial Case Study series. Unlike most of her guests, we don’t make six figures a year and stay true to our motto “The less money you need, the less you need to earn.”
Check it out here!
Warning: Her website is advertisement-heavy.
Financial Case Study: Liesbet Collaert, Roaming About
Liesbet Collaert was born in Belgium and recently became an American, but calls herself a world citizen. She’s been a digital nomad since 2003 (sailing, house sitting, and RVing), earning money as a freelance writer, photographer, translator, and editor. Her first travel memoir is almost ready for publication. Liesbet connects with her readers on her blog Roaming About – A Life Less Ordinary, as well as her Facebook page or Instagram account.
While Liesbet’s income seems small, I think you’ll agree that she and her husband have lived an extraordinary life of travel, and by using creative budget travel tips (like getting accommodation for free) they haven’t been left wanting for much. Check it out!
How long have you been living/working on the road, and where have you traveled to?
Where do I start? Since I’m pretty impulsive and adventurous, my nomadic existence and means to make money developed organically. I’ve always been a traveler. One of the reasons I became a teacher in Belgium was to have a long summer vacation designed around exploring the world. I took two “leave of absences” during my first four years of teaching, to backpack in Southeast Asia and Down Under. Being frugal and passionate about travel, that’s what I used my income for. I never owned anything, making it easy for me to be flexible. The third time I left Belgium for an extended adventure, I never returned. That was in 2003.
While I didn’t need to make money during these initial escapades, as I had savings from my “real job” and I run a tight budget ship, one – of course – can’t journey forever without earnings. Darn! I think it was in 2008 – after a few years of RV-travel and getting close and personal with sailboats – that I started to create some sort of income. Up until that point, I’d cleaned a few boats for change and kept a free blog about our sailing journey on SV Irie to share our experiences and inspire others.
I traveled throughout Europe while living in Belgium until I was 27, backpacked in Southeast Asia and Oceana for two years, explored the continental US, Canada, and Alaska in a truck camper for a year and a half and Mexico and Central America for another year. In 2007, the sailboat episode followed – a journey that brought us from Maryland (USA) south to Florida, throughout the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, spending hurricane season in the Dominican Republic, and on to the Eastern Caribbean via Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
After three years up and down the Leeward and Windward Islands, we skimmed the out islands of Venezuela, spend time in Colombia, and enjoyed over a year in Panama. The next steps were transiting the Canal, being blown away by wildlife in the Galapagos Islands, and concluding our sailing voyage after cruising in French Polynesia for two years. Eight years after casting off (in 2015), we sold Irie in Tahiti.
Since then, we’ve slowed down a bit, house and pet sitting throughout the United States and exploring North America in our 19ft camper van Zesty. I am more than ready for tropical and exciting destinations again, whenever this pandemic allows it.
Please describe what you do for income.
First, I’d like to point out that my husband and I are very frugal and we’ve found that being careful with expenditures allows us the life we desire – more freedom and less need to be workaholics. The way we manage our money, our aversion towards collecting material goods, and our love of simplicity are leading factors for how we make this nomadic lifestyle work – financially and otherwise.
Continue reading here…
Welcome Liesbet Collaert #wouldyourather by Jill Weatherholt
On Friday, the lovely, kind, generous, and supportive blogger and romance author Jill Weatherholt invited me over on her site to participate in her fun and insightful #wouldyourather series. Check out our interview with her five unique yet tough questions and my less than ordinary answers!
Welcome Liesbet Collaert #wouldyourather
Today I’m excited to welcome friend, writer, blogger, photographer and world traveler, Liesbet Collaert. Many of you already enjoy reading about Liesbet’s nomadic lifestyle on her blog. If not, I encourage you to do so. Each visit is like taking a trip to a magical destination. She and her husband Mark are living a lifestyle that most could only dream of experiencing. Thanks so much for playing along, Liesbet!
Thank you, Jill, for featuring me on your lovely blog this week and for letting me play along in your entertaining Would You Rather series. I had a lot of fun participating!
Would you rather be able to freeze time or travel in time?
Travel in time. That way, I can keep going back to the moments I’d like to freeze and experience them over and over again. 😊 The main reason I’d like to travel in time (sometimes in the future to have a quick glance at the outcome of a decision in case it’s disastrous and I’d have to go back and change it, but most often to the past) is to investigate something that has always intrigued me. Choices.
I’m a firm believer that life is about choices and not about luck or following social norms. Yet, I wish I had the ability to experience different paths in this precious lifetime. My future, in general, can be left alone; each new day is exciting and promising. But when it comes to my past, I often wonder what would have happened if I picked the other direction at a split in the road. To be able to experience alternate paths would be most novel and satisfying to the curious mind!
Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the most intelligent?
Continue reading the post here.
Comments are closed on this page, but I’d love to read your thoughts – and your answers if you feel inclined – on Jill’s blog. Happy reading!
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