Disconnected In Tokyo: A Cell Phone Nightmare

January 22, 2019April 16, 2019 by Getting Canned, posted in Global Travel, Personal Finance

These days it’s easy to be a road warrior and travel to foreign lands when you have a smartphone in hand. You can translate language on the fly with Google Translate. You always know where you’re going with Google Maps or Apple Maps. Restaurant reviews are at your fingertips for any location you discover unless you’re not connected.

If you’re planning to travel overseas, you definitely don’t want to be without a connection to the internet and smartphone as it can make travel much more challenging.

I’ll share a quick story about my first time visiting Japan. In 2012 I went to Tokyo, and while I did a fair amount of research for my trip, I didn’t put much effort into planning for my cell phone service. I foolishly assumed it wouldn’t be a problem.

By the time I had visited Japan, I had a fair amount of Asia travel under my belt. I’d blazed trails in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Thailand. In most Asian countries picking up a SIM card is as easy as stopping at an airport kiosk or cell phone store and buying a prepaid plan. And the rates are often quite affordable.

Chunghwa Telecom Prepaid Data Taiwan Cell Phone Rates — These are the rates per gig of cell phone service for Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan as of 2019. This chart give you an idea of market rates for data in Taiwan. Eight Gigs of data costs about $33 USD.

It’s possible I simply missed it, but when I was in the airport I looked for a few phone service SIM card shops and couldn’t seem to find one that would sell my a SIM card. It’s possible there was a communication gap but I was under the impression a foreigner couldn’t buy a SIM card. Someone advised me I could rent a cell phone but I passed. I figured, I could find somewhere in town to pick up a SIM card. I spent about four days in Tokyo and was never able to find a place to get a prepaid SIM card.

Well, I’ll tell you that Tokyo, Japan isn’t beginner level travel for an American wanting to travel within Asia. Without access to Google Maps, and translate and my various travel sites like Wikitravel, I was a bit lost at times. My internet times was relegated to the free WiFi in my hotel, or what I could pick up in a local coffee shop. Incidentally, I’m at a local coffees shop now as I write this. (Shout out to Louisa coffee in Taiwan for good coffee at a decent price.)

Louisa Coffee in Taiwan. Good coffee at a decent price.

Travel by subway was challenging without internet. Tokyo has multiple subways systems operated by different companies. While they are interconnected, I found that sometimes it wasn’t clear to me which stop was the correct one for my transfer. Sometimes the stops were only posted in Japanese, and there wasn’t an indicator on the train that a subway stop was connected to the other system.

Tokyo is also one of the most expensive cities in the world. It’s not the type of place you want to be without good information of where to go and the most cost efficient way to get there. Information is money in this day and age and being cut off from good info can be costly.

I had a great time in Tokyo and loved the little noodle shops where you choose your selection at a vending machine, pay, and then get a ticket which you can redeem for noodles when your number comes up. I still feel like I might have had a better time if I had been connected.

A bowl of delicious Ichiran Ramen noodles in Osaka Japan

Later on, I revisited Japan. This time I went to Osaka, and I was adamant about getting a SIM card. Somehow it was easy as pie to pick one up. I just bought it from a vending machine in the airport and was online after some fidgeting with the setup process. The setup process took a bit of effort and was something I wasn’t able to get right until I got to the hotel.

Don’t Make My Mistake

So I’ve learned my lesson to make sure I have a good plan when I hit the ground in a new country so I have phone service. But one part of my plan that his been fantastic was picking up a SIM card from Google FI.

The way it works, is you can get a free SIM card from Google FI and the plan is pretty straight forward. You pay $20 US for unlimited calls and texts in the US and then you pay $10 per Gig of data. This is a decent price but Google Fi shines because when you go abroad, Google FI works in most countries and data is the same cost per gig.

Now in my opinion, $10 per Gig isn’t a bad price but it’s true you can find data cheaper in other parts of the world. But the major benefit is that if you have Google Fi, you have internet the moment your plane lands and can catch a signal. This can be useful to catch up on email and do last minute research before you go through the process of deplaning and going through immigration, customs, and get your bags. No more fighting with airports WIFI login that might require setup and passwords.

I’m also keeping my Google FI to maintain a US phone number while abroad. I’m using my Taiwan SIM for low priced data but have my Google FI SIM available if I need to make US calls. Disclaimer: This is easier if you have a dual SIM phone which is becoming more popular. If you’re looking for an affordable great dual SIM phone check out One Plus. They are also available on Amazon. These phones are great and I have no idea why they aren’t more popular.

If you’re interested in trying Google FI prepaid cell service and would like a $20 credit just for signing up, you can check it out by clicking here or any of the Google FI links on this site.

Disclaimer: This article has affiliate links for Google FI service, One Plu and Amazon products. I may be paid a commission for sign-ups or purchases. If you sign up with my Google Fi link you’ll get a $20 credit from Google FI!

Blogger Toolbelt

January 19, 2019February 2, 2019 by Getting Canned, posted in Blogging, Freelancing and Small Business

This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission for sales generated from these links. I only establish affiliate relationships with brands I use and believe in and would not support them if I did not use them myself.

If you decide to create a blog and hope to get a following (and make some money), you should understand it is going to take some work. But like most work, if you want to do the job well, there are tools to help make it easier to do your best. Blogging is no different.

Why SEO Matters

So what is SEO exactly? SEO stands for “search engine optimization”. In layman’s terms, it means optimizing or improving your website or blog in a way that the site ends up in the search results for popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Baidu. If your writing shows up in more search engine results, more people will end up on your site and read what you’ve written.

So how do you optimize your site so that it shows up in search results? Well, the question is so complex that an entire SEO industry exists to attempt to improve SEO for their clients. Search engines like Google have very complex algorithms that determine where a page should appear for search results. The complexities of search result algorithms are proprietary and not truly clear, but some aspects stand the test of time to improve your chances of showing up in search results. You can search “Getting Canned” and I should show up on the first page.

The SEO and Grammar Relationship

One is to consider that you should use proper grammar in your writing. If your posts are sloppy and have poor grammar, it’s unlikely that search engines will see your site as a quality site worthy of a high ranking in search results.

So how do you make sure your grammar passes the test? One tool that I’ve found to be very useful is the grammar checker Grammarly. There is a free version of this tool and a paid version.

I discovered Grammarly after submitting my first guest post to the blog Fly to FI. Despite my efforts to manually check my work, I made several grammar mistakes. Blog owner Cody, caught the errors and kindly let me know he made some corrections and let me know how useful Grammarly is as a tool for bloggers. I installed it the same day.

I was so impressed with the free version that I realized at some point, if I’m serious about writing, I should get the paid version. I invested in the pro version to check my work just before I submitted my guest post to 1500days.com.

The free version of Grammarly provides critical grammar and spelling checks at no cost to you. Try Grammarly free and if you decide to upgrade to the PRO version you’ll also get the following:

PRO FEATURES

Advanced checks for punctuation, grammar, context, and sentence structure

Vocabulary enhancement suggestions

Genre-specific writing style checks

Plagiarism detector that checks more than 16 billion web pages

OTHER FEATURES:

Check your writing across the web
Access your personal editor via Grammarly.com
Access your documents on multiple devices
Integrate with Microsoft® Office (Windows only)
Use native desktop apps (Windows and macOS)
See definitions and synonyms via double clicks
Catch contextual spelling and grammar mistakes
Add words to your personal dictionary
See explanations of grammar rules
Get performance stats via email

If you are interested in writing that will look professional and be free from grammar mistakes consider install the free Grammarly extension by clicking on Grammarly links or banner below.

The Pay of a Blogger

January 14, 2019February 17, 2023 by Getting Canned, posted in Blogging, Freelancing and Small Business

It’s mid-January 2019, and the current state of the internet is that there’s a lot of bloggers out there. Take a spin on Instagram or Twitter and check out the wave of WordPress devotees publishing everything under the sun. Search “blogger,” or “travel blog” or “financial independence” and take your pick of the blog that catches your attention. I’m considering jumping on “bloggers that blog about bloggers blogging” as a niche site. Meh.It’s probably already been done.

If you look at what’s out there’s there’s quite a range. Some are fantastic. Some are still developing we’ll say. You may wonder why are so many people doing this? You may especially wonder what is the pay of a blogger?

Connection to a Blogging Community

If you do some research into finding happiness, you’ll inevitably end up with one of the answers being about being connected to a community. How can I say this without sounding too kumbaya? If you create a blog and give it a serious go, you’re going to end up looking to other bloggers to understand a lot of things. What is the difference between a page and a post? What exactly do themes do? How do you get these widgets to work? What are bloggers doing to get traffic? How do you get paid? Well like most things in life, you’re going to want to talk to someone who has experience doing it unless you want to try to recreate the wheel.

Starbucks in Taipei — The open office seating of a blogger in Taipei, Taiwan. Or just stay home.

Connecting with other bloggers will generally improve your writing as well. Do a guest post and you may get some good feedback. I remember when Mr. Flexcents made me aware of the fact that I’m putting too many spaces after my periods. I’m getting better at stopping this decades-old habit. I’ve since followed the habits of other bloggers that use Grammarly to ensure their writing has good grammar. Good grammar is crucial if you want to start having good SEO and rank within Google’s search results.

While you’re making a go at blogging and learning all the quirks of HTML, PHP, plugins, marketing, monetizing, networking with other bloggers, it might be worth making a not of something. You’re learning and developing valuable business skills that you could market to others and get paid.

Friend or Foe?

Wait a minute. Aren’t you bloggers all competing with each other? Coke and Pepsi don’t help each other out. Well often in capitalism, it is this way. But I think winning depends on the game your playing.

After my first few years out of college in the work world, I remember comparing the vibe to my college days. College to me always felt a little bit like a utopia. I mean people sort of had common goals and weren’t exactly competing against each other in most ways. The goals were to meet people, have fun, learn, have great experiences and prep for the work world. People were comfortable to be their real self. Then after graduation we entered the work world.

The work world felt like the antithesis of college to me. Now we were no longer able to dress as we wanted but instead dressed in accordance with the workplace policy. Business casual typically, followed by a casual Friday if you’re lucky. Bust out the polo and jeans. Yay.

And then beyond clothes, there were the people. Personally, in the corporate world, I was often met with a certain type of phoniness in some of the people I met. The corporate personality. Someone who knows how to “play the game”. Someone well adept at maneuvering the strange office political climate and knows how to manipulate others to get what they want. It seemed to be evidence that we no longer had common goals, but instead had entered into some type of zero-sum game. After all, only so many people on the team can be promoted or get an exceptional merit increase.

This online community thing seems to be a lot more like college than the workplace. Someone else’s success doesn’t mean your failure. In fact, someone else’s success can be part of your success.

Getting Your Name Out There

A large part of doing the blog thing is getting traffic to your site. There’s a number of ways to do this, but one strategy is to create content for others blogging or podcasting on their sites. You’re helping them, but in turn, you’re also getting your name out. So from this perspective, you have an interest in their success as well.

When you get your name and story out there, you may find some people relate to your story and wish to connect with you. Before you are focused on trying to get rich from blogging, you should appreciate being a content creator as that it gives you a chance to share your story. It gives you access to a medium to make friends and connect with other like-minded people. I recently connected with Adrian over at Clever and Lazy who had a similar job loss experience during the financial crisis that landed him in Shanghai China for a while.

I was recently on a couple of podcasts to get my blog name out there. I was on Choose FI and The FI Show, both great podcasts with incredible content that I highly recommend. A shout out to The FI Show for their work editing a bit of my nervous rambling. (It was my first podcast!) .

Oh yeah. Money.

Ah yes, money. How much MONEY does a blogger make? There’s no one size fits all answer to this question. There are undoubtedly thousands of blogs out there that don’t make a cent. Many don’t intend to make money. And then there are those that make millions and millions of dollars and cents.

If I were to take an educated guess on pay, I’d say the following. A new blogger might make roughly $200 a month of income after maybe six to twelve months of writing. This figure is with the caveat that they do some hard work and have the dedication to create content as well as market their site. But the way the internet scales, this could increase exponentially if your content catches on or goes viral. Your results will vary. If you’re interested in starting a blog, read more here.

I wrote a post about how much I made early on with this blog here. Generally speaking, most of my affiliate links pay me somewhere between $10 to $100 for a sale. I only show links to companies I actively use and truly recommend.

This post contains affiliate links to Grammarly and I may be paid for signups that meet certain conditions. I only recommend products or services I use.

Teaching English Online for Supplemental Income

How Much I Earned From Four Months of Blogging

Medical Care Overseas: A Trip to the ER in Taiwan

January 5, 2019April 16, 2019 by Getting Canned, posted in Global Travel

I’ve been in Taipei, Taiwan for close to two weeks now. After the first couple of days I came down with a minor cold. I used to live in Taiwan, and I remember now that in Taipei, the winters tend to be cool and damp and having a mild cold and allergies was a common occurrence for me. I didn’t think too much of the initial cold until a night ago when things progressed to what I feared might be pneumonia.

Things were getting worse. I had a persistent cough, a lot of congestion and my asthma was flaring up to the point I could barely breathe. We made the decision to head to the emergency room. Well, really I thought a doctor’s appointment seemed more appropriate but my girlfriend advised to just head to the ER.

US Passport Taiwan ER — The get medical service as a foreigner starter kit in Taiwan

The experience is definitely different than healthcare in the west. There’s no expectation of bills that will arrive from various medical agencies at various times in your future. You settle up any payments there on the spot. It’s a bit funny but you sort of pay for the care as you get it, and so as the exam progressed and more things were recommended we were sent back to pay a couple times. It feels a bit silly but at least it keeps you current.

But so we arrived at the emergency room. Registered my name. And described my symptoms. It was good to have my girlfriend help translate a bit here as my Chinese ability is ~~pretty limited~~, virtually non-existent. Within 25 minutes or so I was seeing the doctor.

The doctor spoke English well. I was a bit taken aback that he seemed to be pretty young. Maybe I’m just getting older, but he seemed maybe 19 or so but age can be deceiving. He might have been closer to 30. But I don’t think he would have been terribly out of place in one of my English classes with other high school students. But I digress. After describing my symptoms, he sent me to the lab tech to draw blood.

They insert a thing to draw blood or do injections directly into my hand. The lab tech drew blood into a variety of vials to do a panel of tests. After drawing the blood I was a bit surprised when she then dropped a vile of solution and pushed the injection. It was saline solution. Apparently to replenish electrolytes I was told.

patient ER Room Taiwan — A lot of times people were really out in the open. Maybe privacy is a bit different here

Next, I was advised to head to radiology for an x-ray. They did a chest x-ray to see how bad the infection might be. Didn’t take very long. I’ve probably had more chest x-rays than a person should have. It should be noted, that generally speaking, you’ll need a chest x-ray to get a working visa if you want to be an English teacher in Taiwan, unless the laws have changed.

Taiwan Hallway Hospital — The halls were bustling with people

The doctor sent me to do a breathing treatment. I’m not sure what this is called, but they hoo up a certain type of medicine (I’ll update later) to oxygen and have you inhale through a tube. I remember doing this treatment when I was a child with pneumonia once. The treatment seemed to help a bit.

My Diagnosis

The doctor advised me that within an hour I’d have my results. After some waiting we found the doctor and he sat me down and let me know the diagnosis. I have a bad cold and am having an asthma attack. Well this was a bit anti-climatic.

The doctor said that my blood looked healthy and all levels were regular. He noticed a bit of white in the x-ray that would indicate that there was a bit of infection in my lungs. He prescribed a low-level antibiotic just as a precaution in case this could be early pneumonia. My experience in Taiwan has always been that the doctors like to prescribe as much medicine as they can. The price is always reasonable so I always figured to get the meds and then read about them and not take any that didn’t seem necessary.

The Bill

So let’s recap on the services I received:

trip to the emergency room
a consultation with a doctor
blood panel test
saline solution injection, steroid injection, and oxygen/medicine breathing treatment
x-ray
medicine prescribed and dispensed

What would this type of treatment cost in the US? Any takers? I feel like this care would have to cost at least over $3,000 in the US.

My total out the door cost without applying any insurance was about $130 US dollars. Not bad.

If you are pursuing financial independence, utilizing the lower cost of financial independence can be a crucial part of your plan to cut costs with things like housing and food cost and especially medial care.

I Got My Head Vacuumed in Taiwan

December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 by Getting Canned, posted in Global Travel, Personal Finance

Man I love Asia, specifically Taiwan. I got a haircut yesterday for just $3 US dollars. Without regard to what I requested, as translated from English to Chinese via my girlfriend, then conveyed to the stylist, the cut was fairly standard Taiwan style which is high and tight. It looks well enough. For Three bucks I can’t complain.

The experience was pretty cool. You enter the salon, and put a 100 NT dollar bill (about $3 US) into a vending machine. A ticket spits out with a number. When your number lights up you go to the stylist and get a quick decent cut. The best part is at the end of the haircut is at the end, they use this sort of vacuum tube to suck all the loose hairs from your head. It’s kind of noisy but it feels cool. I’ll chalk it up as a Taiwanese win.

And you’ll get a ticket for a haircut and head vacuum.

The head vacuuming process

Overcoming Job Related Identity Loss

December 19, 2018February 9, 2020 by Getting Canned, posted in Guest Posts

Today’s guest post talks about the loss of identity. It often comes with losing a job, but sometimes, it can come WITH the job. This post comes to you courtesy of Mr. Flexcents who writes about personal finance as well as health and wellness over at Flexcents.com Let’s dive in with a personal story of his. – Milton

____________________________________

One of the first things that we ask the people we meet is “What do you do for a living?” This question can lead to an awkward silence, especially if you recently lost your job — or worse, your identity. I’m not talking about identity theft either.

Career Beginnings

Ever since high school, I always wanted to become a physical therapist (PT). It was a burning desire to help people recover from their injuries so they can return to caring for themselves or their family. In 2014, I finally achieved this dream after 7 years of rigorous study. To add to the thrills of graduation and passing my licensure exam, I was accepted into a competitive residency program at a non-profit outpatient PT clinic. While residencies for PTs are completely optional, I had the career goal of furthering my education to become an orthopedic clinical specialist and this residency was designed to provide my with the training to achieve my goals. However, my passion to drive my career forward began to fade along with a large piece of my personal identity.

Initial Experiences

The last thing I expected fresh out of school was to be told I was not good enough. These words came from one of my residency mentors. I recognized this residency was made to groom me to become a better PT. However, what I didn’t realize was that my was that my mentor’s teaching style was poorly aligned with my learning style. I figured I would continue to work hard regardless and eventually, it would pay off. Despite my efforts, all I received were negative feedback and insults. This lead me to feel incompetent, intimidated and powerless by my mentor’s mere presence. I now realize, I needed more guidance and positive feedback.

When things are not working, speak up rather than wait for things to get worse.

Instead of focusing on the details of how he made me feel this way, let’s focus on some dynamics on why my first professional experience made me feel so lost and how you can learn from my mistakes. To do this, I will refer to a model called The Wheel of Life.

The Wheel of Life

The wheel of life was a concept originally created by Paul J. Meyer. He is considered the pioneer of the self-improvement industry. Many have made modifications to the areas of life measured in this model. I will be using Zig Ziglar’s modification which considers intellect, social, family, spiritual, physical, financial, and career. Each area of your life affects another.

This is what mine looked like at the start of my residency.

You can see that I was heavily focused on my career. As the residency progressed, my focus shifted even more towards my career and studies. Of course, this took from other areas of my life such as spending time with my friends and family and spending little to no time in the gym. My life began to be thrown out of balance and was I was poorly equipped to deal with the stressors of unexpected events at work.

The unhappiness from my job began bleeding into other areas of my life. I began to isolate myself to avoid my mentor at work to avoid harsh criticism, I became agitated at home and I could no longer resolve familial issues with a cool head. I stopped working out all-together and just stopped taking care of myself. To make matters worse, I had to start worrying about finances since the public service loan forgiveness became more uncertain for my situation – I was already in over $100K in student loan debt!

Not only was I questioning my career, intellect, and financial stability, I was questioning who I was and who I wanted to become. I felt like I was stuck in a void with no answers and was just trying to survive. It wasn’t long before I felt useless to everyone around me. This was the most dangerous feeling I ever had.

The Fix

My trajectory drastically changed after being involved in a hit and run while walking to work. The van tossed me into the air and miraculously, I only ended up with a few bruises and a broken leg. This accident made me realize how valuable my life is and how my life is much more than my career.

I took control of my situation and sought professional help to figure out what was wrong with me. I also reached out to family and friends to discuss my feelings and difficulties at work. They already knew something was up and was willing to lend a helping hand. I don’t know what took so long for me to reach out to others, but the support provided me with clarity. It wasn’t me that was the problem, it was my environment at work.

This lead me to leave the residency and determine that no amount of career success or loan forgiveness is worth my happiness. I transitioned out of this outpatient residency and went into a skilled nursing facility (SNF) to build up my confidence back up. Changing jobs also came with a 10% pay raise allowing my to put more money towards my student loans!

Currently

Fast forward a couple years later, I transitioned from an SNF to treating patients in their homes. I have learned to love my career again and enjoy the good people I work with. I have developed a better work-life balance, paid off over $100K of student debt and now I am pursuing financial independence so I can allocate my time and energy to other passions and spending more time with loved ones.

As you can see below, I am living a more balanced life now as I live a life that is defined by much more than my career.

The Lessons I Have Learned

You Are Good Enough

Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. My mentor told me I was fail without his supervision. I am now thriving in my current position and am making a difference in my patients’ lives. I learned that when people are unjustifiably mean or unsupportive of you, it is more their problem than yours. Spend less energy focusing on the negative people and more energy focusing on the people who matter.

Diversify Your Purpose As You Would Your Money

You don’t have to be a financial advisor to recognize how important it is to diversify your investment portfolio. The same can be said in where you spend your time and energy. Even if you are lucky enough to find meaning in your career, find purpose and develop goals outside of your career. This will help during times of uncertainty, like job loss and retirement.

Ask For Help

No one knows what is going on in your head. People knew things were not going well with me, but I denied any issues. Even though I was screaming for help inside, but too proud to ask for it. Prolonged sadness can lead to serious problems. If you have lost interest or pleasure in doing things, feeling down or hopeless, seek help immediately. There is no shame in reaching out to friends and family.

Own Your Future

My favorite quote I have hanging on my wall goes something like: “Life does not get better by chance, it gets better by choice” – Jim Rohn. Bad things happen to people all the time. While it may not be your fault for these misfortunes, it sure as heck is your responsibility to find ways to better your life.

We All Have A Unifying Purpose

The most important thing I learned is to shift my focus from career to relationships and experiences. I learned that I am so much more than a physical therapist. I’m a husband, brother, son, uncle, reliable friend, exercise enthusiast, financial fanatic, blogger, amateur photographer, perpetual learner and so much more.

In the end, we are much more than our careers and titles. We are the laughs we put on other people’s faces, the experiences we share with acquaintances and loved ones, and the difference in all the lives we touch throughout our lifetime.

If you want to read more about me and how I am working towards financial independence, visit flexcents.com

The American Salary is an Illusion

December 18, 2018August 1, 2020 by Getting Canned, posted in Featured, Global Travel

So I’m on day three of my mini-retirement. I’m posted up in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week or two and I’m thinking about the low cost of living and debating the merits of living in lower cost areas in Asia vs. the USA. In my opinion, the best reason to live in the US is to make a good salary. But I think if you really put US salaries under the microscope, they aren’t as big as you think.

Let’s consider a respectable middle-class salary of around $65,000. For the purpose of keeping things simple, I’ll consider a single person. A couple earns more of course but they often come with children and more expenses. After the tax man takes his cut, you’re likely left with around $4,000 a month based on a take-home pay calculator for someone living in Chicago. Before you’ve purchased anything, your $65,000 salary has shrunk to about $48,000.

You Don’t Dare stay in USA Without Health Insurance

If you’re going to reside in the US, you simply can’t go without health insurance because if health problems come your way you can be devastated. Medical expenses are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US. Health insurance doesn’t come cheap with especially as you get middle age. Prices vary wildly depending on coverage but middle-of-the-road coverage for a middle-aged person might run about $300 a month. You’re $4,000 a month salary is now about $3,700. Your $65,000 annual salary is now closer to $44,000.

Never mind that American healthcare cost are absurdly high. Never mind that most health insurance doesn’t provide much value until you’ve spent over at least $1,000 a month out of your own pocket. We’ve come to accept these things as acceptable.

The Cost of Working

In order to get to your job, you’ll typically need to live within a reasonable proximity of your place of employment. It’s true that you can definitely reduce cost by taking on roommates but for some of us past a certain age, it’s less feasible. Living in a decent pace in our near major cities can often run around $1,100 a month or so and that’s not extravagant living at all. Your monthly funds are now coming in around $2,600 and annually you’re at $31,200.

Of course you’re going to need electricity. You’re also going to need internet access and you’re going to need a cell phone. If you’re frugal all can be had for just a bit over $100 a month. If you’re looking to get phone service for only $20 a month plus data, I recommend Google Fi. Get a $20 sign up credit here. It’s great for global travel too. Now were’ at $2,500 a month and an even $30,000 a year.

Getting Around

Here’s where you have a lot of flexibility in how you handle things financially. I did my best to be frugal buying a Japanese economy car at a decent price and keeping it for two years before heading overseas. I would have had a much better average total cost of ownership if I kept it for 10 years instead of two. But I ended up spending over $600 a month surprisingly to have this car. I’m sure most can do better with effort but I think you’d be hard pressed to keep a car and pay less than $400 a month for TOTAL cost of ownership. So that bring us to $2,100 a month and $25,000 a year.

I saved a ton of money on car insurance by taking a tuk-tuk. You can go far for 40 Baht or about $1.20

The Rest

I won’t go over every detail of expenses but consider what we have left. You need to eat. You’re going to be cooking and eating out sometimes. Even if you’re frugal and intentional with your money you’ll be spending at least some on entertainment. Haircuts happen. Trips to the doctor happen. Medical expenses happen. Birthdays and Christmas happen. You need to shop. I think it’s fair to say that you might budget around $500 at least for the rest. Now you’ve got around $1,600 a month left or $19,200 a year.

The Value of Your American Job

So you might put the value of your “$65,000” job to actually be a bit closer to $20,000. Things ALWAYS happen that could reduce this but this is a rough figure for what a typical person might have available to them to save from their time toiling at the office for some 2060 hours of work a year.

How to Do Better!

Avoid The Taxman

One of the best easiest ways to hold on to more of your money is to shelter it from taxes to the best of your ability. If your company offers a 401k plan, by all means participate in it to the fullest extent that you can afford. For a traditional 401k, you’ll be able to avoid significant taxes on the income you diver into your retirement account.

When you leave your job, you can rollover your 401k to a good broker that has low fees or even no fees like my favorite broker M1 Finance. Get $10 FREE for signing up with M1 Finance here.

Go to Where Living is More Affordable

The outside of the Chindra Boutique hotel. A great place in Chiang Mai

This is a big part of what’s bringing me to Asia is the lower cost of living. At the time of this writing, I’m in a very popular spot for low cost living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The prices here play a big part in driving tourists. I stayed at my hotel for around $23 a night. Check it out on Agoda below.

Chindra Boutique comes in at around $23. This pic wasn’t my room and is courtesy of Agoda.

Consider lowering your total cost of living by ditching your car and finding some other way. Consider lowering your cost of living even more by getting out of the US. Look at the cost of some of these delicious meals in Chiang Mai.

The conversion rate for Thai baht is 100 baht is roughly about $3 US. Many of these meals are hovering around 50 to 80 baht.

Getting rid of my car felt great. There’s plenty of ways to get around in Asia without a car.

It’s not just food cost and housing cost that drop when you’re overseas. Medical and dental costs drop as well. I was able to get a dental cleaning for $700 Baht which is about $21 US dollars without any dental insurance. I got two free tubes of toothpaste as well!

The V-Smile dental clinic in Chiang Mai. It was about $20 USD for a cleaning and service with a smile. And some free toothpaste!

I got two free tubes of Colgate with my dental cleaning. Nice.

Don’t Fall for the Illusion

A fat salary is only fat if you’re able to hold on to and save most of it. If most of your salary goes out the window to cost of living then the dollar amount of your salary is worthless. Focus on how much you can save when valuing your current situation. I know English teachers in Asia that were able to save up to $1,000 a month USD working part-timee. If your job doesn’t allow you to save this much then consider other lifestyles that might allow you to hit your savings goals sooner.

Mini Retirement Day 1: Bangkok, Thailand

December 17, 2018January 3, 2019 by Getting Canned, posted in Getting Fired, Global Travel

So here I am on day one of my mini-retirement. I flew from Chicago to Bangkok with a layover in Shanghai. I reached my destination around 1:00 am and grabbed a few hours of sleep and now it’s 10:00 AM. What better way to start the day then hitting an American based international coffee chain? (Just once I swear.) I got a latte and egg sandwich and am sitting in a Starbucks writing in central Bangkok, Thailand. So what’s going through my head?

Bangkok View — The view from S-Box Hotel in Bangkok. After some 22 hours of flying and passing out at my hotel. This is the view I woke up to.

My initial feeling is a mix of happiness to enjoy travel freedom but with some feelings of being desensitized to my reality. Much has happened and I’m still processing everything. Here’s a recap of recent weeks.

I finished up a consulting contract and am now recently unemployed.
I sold virtually all my possessions and vacated my apartment about a month ahead of my lease end date.
I packed up what was left and flew out to Asia. My ultimate destination is Taiwan, but I’m stopping over in Thailand for a while first. The itinerary consists of Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket before heading over to Taiwan.

Traveling Pro Tip: If you’re flying to a specific location in another country, it’s worth doing a bit of research to see about the cheapest way to get there. Here’s what I mean. Find the cheapest flight to that continent. Then you can sometimes find a cheap flight over to your ultimate destination. For example, I was looking at tickets from Chicago to Taiwan and most were over $1,000. But I found a ticket to Bangkok, Thailand for only $679, From there, you can get a round-trip ticket to Taiwan for around $250. it’s like a free mini-vacation flight.

I’m making good on a promise I made to myself to be done with midwest winters. I can’t take any more 10 degrees below zero days January/February days. This trip is an undefined break from corporate life. I’ve been freelancing and have rental income and this could transition to a life of freelancing and travel. Or I might end up back in the US this spring to do another round of contract consulting. I’ll see how I’m feeling in March.

My head is swirling a bit from big life changes. So I’m recently unemployed as a result of my contract ending. I sold all my stuff. I just spent about 22 hours flying which consisted of a rushed layover in Shanghai and a 1:00 AM arrival in Bangkok Thailand with onward travel to Chiang Mai, Phuket and then later Taipei, Taiwan after I catch my breath.

I’ve lived a fairly dull life the last few years that was focused mostly on work and I realized I’ve got to try to get off the mode of being a “work robot”. My life consisted of grinding out the nin to five and living frugally. Delayed gratification and stoicism was the strategy, but perhaps at the cost of a bit of my soul. Of course, I spent some good time with friends and family but most of my life was spent working in the office or on freelance projects.

At least now if I’m working, it can be on the projects where total ownership is in MY hands. As a side note, I’ll mention to anyone reading that I just recorded a podcast episode of Choose FI which is scheduled to drop in early January. Hope I sound good. It was a lot of fun recording with them. They really are great guys even behind the scenes a shout out to Jonathan and Brad. Keep up the great work guys.

Thoughts on Disconnecting from Corporate Life

Man, working in an office for years took a toll. The past four years of cubicle sitting hasn’t done me well physically. I think I may have overdone frugal with sleeping on an air mattress. But no more.

But the real consideration is a mental and psychological one. Working in an office gives you structure and order. When you don’t have a 9 to 5 job you potentially have chaos.

Bananas from a street vendor in Bangkok.

Tools That Made My Trip Go Smoothly.

You can usually get good hotel rates on Agoda. I recommend them and I’m a partner so if you book using that link I’ll get a commission at no charge to you. I also like their app that has a feature called “Taxi Helper” to show your taxi driver your hotel address to assist in getting you to your destination. This is helpful if you’re still brushing up on your language learning.

Also, I recently signed up for Google FI. This is Google’s cell phone service may be very appealing to the right type of customer. The appeal to me is that fact that it works virtually anywhere in the world. It’s nice to hit the ground in a new country and not have to go buy a SIM. The data rates are decent, perhaps not the best if you comparison shop.

You get unlimited calls and texts for just $20
Data is $10 per gig and caps out after 6 gigs and then you have unlimited internet. I.e. $60 data cost for unlimited internet. It’s not Bad but other deals out there may be better
What seals the deal for me is the ability to hit the ground in a new country and be connected while exiting the plane.

I recommend Google FI for frugal world travelers that hit different countries often. I think it’s generally true in many countries you can get enough data for a couple weeks for $25 or so but then you’ll need to get a new SIM and switch SIM’s and then do this again when you hit the next country. Here’s referral link that will get you a $20 credit when you sign up. No obligation so consider trying it.

The next stop on the itinerary was Chiang Mai. It’s known as one of the hot spots for digital nomads because of the great year round climate and super affordable cost of living.

I saved a lot of money by ditching my car insurance, and moving to Asia and taking a tuk-tuk instead.

This post contains affiliate links for Agoda and Google FI. I may receive a commission for some sign ups. I personally use these services regularly and wouldn’t recommend them if I didn’t use them.