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#08 | Jay and Christi of Puddles & Passports | Proving That the Digital Nomad Lifestyle is Possible with Children | The Nomad on FIRE Podcast Show Notes
#08 Jay and Christi of Puddles & Passports are living the dream! Listen here to see how they achieved Financial Independence and are now traveling around the world with their two young children.
Guests Bio:
Jay and Christi of Puddles & Passports are currently on a year-long journey around the world with their two young children Chloe (5), and Camden (20 months). They share their story at Puddles & Passports where they show other families how to travel the world with children. We discuss their day to day routine while traveling, the importance of slow travel, the financial habits that set them up to be able to go on this journey and so much more in this episode!
Links Mentioned:
- Puddles & Passports Follow Jay, Christi and the kids travel journey!
- Puddles & Passports on Facebook
- Puddles & Passports on Instagram
- Nomad Summit 2020 by Johnny FD and team
- World Wide Soccer, company that Jay founded in 2003 and then they sold the business in 2017
- Their article on vacation rentals vs. hotels
- Tips for flying with children
- Johnny from Financial Roadways, one of my friends mentioned in the episode and travel hacking expert
- Trusted Housesitters
- WWOOF
- Puddles & Passports How To Plan Long Term Family Travel
- Traveling Full Time for Six Months – The Stats!
Show Notes:
- Jay and Christi of Puddles & Passports, welcome to the show! 00:30
- Christi and Jay’s background and how they ended up in Chiang May, Thailand 01:15
- The catalyst to start living a more nomadic lifestyle 03:40
- The importance of having goals and something to work on and make progress within Early Retirement 06:15
- What does a typical day look like for Jay, Christi, Chloe (5), and Camden (20 months) while traveling the world 07:35
- The importance of staying in a place for longer when traveling with children #slowtravel 10:30
- Christi and Jay discuss work and how they spend their time on their blog Puddles & Passports 13:00
- The mission and vision behind Puddles & Passports 16:15
- Jay and Christi’s top tips for traveling with young children 19:55
- Christi and Jay talk finances and how they afford to travel around the world as a family 24:00
- Top tips
- They tried to live solely off of Christi’s income and save Jay’s income
- Renting out their home while they’re traveling
- Other savings and investments
- Budgeting plan- trying to live off the same budget as what they would spend back home in San Antonio
- Top tips
- We discuss Jay and Christi’s journey around the world in more detail! All the places they’ve been, house sitting, WWOOFing and so much more!!!! 31:40
- Thoughts on Chiang Mai, Thailand 38:15
- Future Travel Plans 42:15
- The importance of having your finances in order and each step up in savings grants more and more freedom, and the importance of having a visual reminder of your longer-term goal 50:30
- Top takeaways and advice for aspiring digital nomads 52:35
- Perfect day for Christi, Jay, and family
- What does a perfect day look like? 55:30
- Where to reach Jay and Christi online 57:45
- And much more…
Significant quotes:
- “We thought well we can pick them up and travel now or we can wait until they’re in college, and we just thought why not now!” 03:20
- “ In my mind, I’m probably not gonna work now and just enjoy spending time traveling. But, I’ve found me personally, maybe it’s the entrepreneurial spirit that I’ve got, I need to be working, I get pleasure out of working, as strange as that may sound and that’s where the idea for puddles and passports came from” 05:05
- “How’re you surviving a 12-hour flight with a toddler?” 05:40
- “We’ve learned that staying in one place long enough to get your bearings and get a routine and a schedule in place has been a game-changer” 07:51
- “It’s unlike a vacation obviously, because we are living this long-term” 08:20
- “We can rationalize with ourselves about jet lag, we can rationalize with ourselves about different foods or things but kinda coaxing two young children into the unknown all the time is fun, but also just takes longer so the adjustment period when we land somewhere new just takes longer, but that’s part of the adventure!” 10:38
- “Vacation rentals vs. Hotels, and what that means for a family, for us what we’ve learned through being on the road for 4 months now is that we need two bedrooms” 16:35
- “I find it to be such an inspirational, fun, community to interact with other families who are on the road” 17:44
- “The content that we’re trying to produce is aimed at a variety of different families, trying to reach those goals of more enjoyable and less stressful travel trips no matter how far you’re going” 18:45
- “Travel can sometimes make the highs higher and the lows lower” 19:15
- “For many years we tried to live mostly on my wage, and then what Jay would generate from the business because it was kind of up and down and unpredictable we would try to sock away and save” 23:26
- “ I always had a vision of one day retiring before I was 40” 24:35
- “The goal was to do this year of travel with the same budget that we lived on in San Antonio” 25:55
- “It was nice to be in a home that was a home, they had games and they had DVDs and they had a fully functioning kitchen” 34:35
- On Chiang Mai- “ I have found it to be a very fun place to be with kids” 39:49
- “We just don’t know who we’re gonna meet or what opportunities you might be presented with or new places you might learn about” 43:50
- “I don’t know if this is the lifestyle we want permanently for our family but I can tell you were so happy that we’re doing it now, we’re having this experience and we don’t have any regrets about doing it now” 47:15
- “If you don’t know what you’re aiming for, if you don’t have a target you’re never gonna hit it” 51:45
- To families- “Traveling is a lot of fun, even if it’s in your own backyard, so wherever you can seek something new or an adventure” 52:50
- On the digital nomad lifestyle “You gotta be a bit more strategic about it but its totally viable, and its something that anyone can do, and hopefully people can see that families can also do it” 54:21
- “It’s very similar to a perfect day at home, just in a new environment” 56:30
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