August 17, 2025 • 40 mins
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Watch the full interview on Youtube here.
In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod with Ryan Mellon from Digital Nomad Nation Podcast. We compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown and discussion of the pros and cons of living in Bali and Vietnam.
If you enjoyed the episode, leave us a 5 star review — it helps more than you think.
Get Ryan's coaching and Digital Nomad Guides: Click here
✈️ Moving to Vietnam? Watch my 60 minute masterclass first → 👉 Watch now
Watch the full interview on Youtube here.
In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod with Ryan Mellon from Digital Nomad Nation Podcast. We compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown and discussion of the pros and cons of living in Bali and Vietnam.
If you enjoyed the episode, leave us a 5 star review — it helps more than you think.
Get Ryan's coaching and Digital Nomad Guides: Click here
✈️ Moving to Vietnam? Watch my 60 minute masterclass first → 👉 Watch now
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome the cost of living abroad. My guest today is
Ryan Mellon, the host of Digital Nomad Nation. I was
on his show last week and now having him on
here today, So it's going to tell us about his
entire experience traveling the world, how he affords and is
able to live in Bali half of the year, his
entire business and enterprise and earning online game plan. Why
(00:22):
don't you tell me what is the setting off point
or the catalyst for you to be a digital nomad?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And seven years ago I was working out two jobs
fourteen hours a day, six days a week, and I
realized that that was for the birds, and it was
terrible and I was just like completely burnt out. So
I did that more from all of my twenties. For
a decade, I worked two jobs, and so I was
(00:52):
watching some video bloggers and reading Nomadic Matts blog and
I read four hour work week, and then I read
Vagabonding and that all just completely opened my mind to
like getting out there and travel. And so while I
still have my two jobs, I managed to get two
(01:15):
weeks off at the same time at both jobs, which
took an incredible amount of negotiation. In the US, we
get a very little amount of vacation, and they never
want you to take it back to back. So I
got two weeks off. I went to Flu to Costa
Rica by myself, stayed in a hostel in San Jose,
(01:36):
never been in a hospital in my life, didn't speak
any Spanish, new no one, and I did Costa Rica
for two weeks, and I was like climbing volcanoes and
swimming in crater lakes and jump lining through or zip
lining through jungles, and hitting both coasts of the beaches there,
(01:58):
both Pacific and the carib In and just met some
amazing people. I met people that have been traveling for years,
and that kind of blew my mind. When I met
some of those folks. I didn't even know that was
a possibility. Right, I'm on these two weeks to get
out of my two prisons that I had at work
(02:19):
back at home. And so I came back from my
vacation not like refreshed and ready to go back to work,
but I came back like I really got to make
some major changes in my life, Like I want to
travel more. Like I can't just only do one or
two weeks here and there. It's much more expensive when
(02:41):
you just go for short periods than longer periods, as
I was to find out later. So as the story
goes along, I was having drinks with friends, as all
great ideas come up with drinks with friends, and they
were like, when we retire, we want to do a
road trip with the US twenty three or we want
(03:01):
to do as many states as weekend over one year,
like in an RV. And I'm like, well, why are
we waiting? Why would you wait till you retire, Like
I'm still having this high coming off this trip, I'm like,
let's let's do this. I'm totally down. I'll go with you,
and like, let's save up enough money for one year
(03:24):
so that we don't have to work. We'll find an RV,
we'll quit our jobs, and we'll just figure it out
when we get back, get our jobs back, get new jobs,
whatever doesn't matter. We were like rented out our houses,
we gave our cars to friends and family. We saved
up enough money so we didn't have to work, and
so we did that one year road trip and we
(03:47):
did twenty three states in that one year, and it
was an absolutely epic experience. But like six months into it,
I started to realize, like, man, this thing's coming to
an end pretty quick, and I'm going to have to
go back to my old jobs, working two jobs. I
don't know, really, I don't even know. And then I
(04:08):
reached out to a good friend who was a real
estate investor. She was buying a lot of houses, flipping
flipping houses and buying rentolds, and I also had my
real estate license, so not only was I working two jobs,
I was also dabbling a little bit in a real
estate with my two jobs. And I called her and
I said, you know, can I help you find some
(04:30):
deals while I'm traveling? And She's like absolutely, you know,
I don't care where you are, Like, if you can
help me find deals, that's great. So I ended up
building a system where I was able to just blast
out offers all over the place while I'm in the
RB out of my state for my friend who's in Virginia,
(04:55):
and we ended up doing like twenty to twenty five
deals in those last six months of me on the road.
And then I got home and I realized, like, wow,
I'm fully remote, Like I'm a digital nomad. It wasn't
even to work back then. This is like now, you know,
end of twenty eighteen beginning of twenty nineteen, I'm like,
I don't have to go back to my jobs. And
(05:17):
so I was home for maybe like a couple weeks
or a month or so, stayed with some family, kept
left my house being rented out, and then I jumped
on a plane and I went to New Zealand. And
then I did six eight countries and six months, and
(05:38):
that was twenty nineteen, and then I've been coming home
every summer since for six months and traveling every winter
for the past seven years.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Beautiful. Wow, So it really it was a real life
changing moment that first time you went away for two weeks.
You kind of never looked back after that. I'm really
curious about the idea that you sort of accidentally started
working remote. So let's can we dig into that a
little bit, like just break out for me. I don't
know a ton about the real estate market, and I'm
(06:13):
sure lots of audience members are curious about that. But
what was this process that you were doing in the
RV that was working or that turned into something real
and profitable.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, So I was a real estate agent working for
a broker, and you know, you think of a typical
real estate agent of actually being in person taking people
to go look at houses, writing offers, handing, delivering them
to the sellers in person and all that. But what
we were focused on was buying houses that were strictly
(06:48):
in distress, so like bank owned properties, repossessed for closed properties.
And at that time everything was starting to become digital,
where I could send everything off for digital signatures. Sometimes
we needed like a real signature, but it could be
(07:09):
scanned and sent through. So we managed to work it
so that I was just finding the deals. Then I
had another agent in my office who was helping out
and was getting a cut of the proceeds to the sales,
and so she would go and actually videotape the house
(07:31):
from top to bottom so that my client could watch
it on YouTube and I could check it out, and
then we would do the basic math of how much
money we thought it needed in renovations. Because I had
seen her, she kind of taught us how to do that,
(07:51):
and then we would just start blasting off offers to
the banks and everyone, and then my client would only
ever look at this stuff until we had it under contract,
and then she would go through and look at it
and it was usually a good enough deal that she
would ninety five percent of the time buy the properties
(08:14):
that we got under contract for her. So that's how
that that's kind of how that worked. But mainly doing paperwork,
finding the stuff online, having someone to go out and
videotape it, and then sending the contracts for digital signatures,
and then just waiting that process out so closing, closing
(08:35):
comes and then I would have them direct deposit my
commission check from my broker into my bank account.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Beautiful man. I think that's an interesting story as well,
because there's so many people who are probably doing a
job that they could do remotely or at least like
eighty percent remotely. And I think there was you know,
the sort of leaving the officing in COVID opened a
lot of people's eyes. But the reality was a big part,
like a big part of Tim Ferris in the four
(09:04):
hour work week. He was not telling people to like quit,
He wasn't telling people to like, you know, do fire
and like save up a number and never work again.
That that book is like a blue plan essentially to
do what you did right, to be like there you
turn your office job into a job where you can
be remote where you don't have to be responsible again
yet before those words, right before digital nomad, before you
(09:26):
know remote or sort of location independent work. That's super cool, man.
So after New Zealand, how did you shift to? Southeast Asia?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And New Zealand, Australia, Bali, Thiland, Singapore, Malaysia, I think China,
and then I ended up in Cuba, so all over
the place. But yeah, New Zealand was amazing. My only
(10:00):
is it it's expensive to be there, right, you know,
it's a beautiful place, but it's not like one of
those geo arbitrage places where you go and live and
it's cheaper. It's it's quite expensive. It was an amazing trip.
When I got to Bali, I really fell in love
with the culture and the natural nests of the island,
(10:23):
having the jungle and the beaches, boat and you have
volcanoes and and then the culture is very cool there.
And then the cost. Just kind of seeing how how
much less it costs to be there and live there
and travel there than what I'm used to at home
(10:46):
was a real big game changer. And I think you
know you have this it's similar in most of Southeast Asia.
It's significantly less.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think Balia has gotten more expensive over the years.
It's one of the higher end places compared to like
especially like Vietnam and some parts of Thailand. But it's
still cheaper than me being at home for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah. So let's let's get into the into some of
the numbers. Let's break down, if you could, your sort
of monthly cost, monthly expenses in Virginia when you're living
a sort of more traditional lifestyle, right, your food, your groceries,
your rent, your cable bill, your phone bill, all that,
all those basics.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, it costs per month living here is going to
be easily three to four thousand dollars on you know,
if you're still being on top of it and you're
renting a reasonable reasonable place, I would say per month. Uh,
and in Bali it can be anywhere from if you're
(11:50):
in the mid range, I would say, you know, not
like backpacker trying to be as cheap as possible, but
not you don't need a private pool, but you do
want to. I'm at villa maybe like two thousand dollars
a month approximately, And I would say that that's your rent,
that's your transportation, you know, having a scooter if you
(12:13):
want or just taking go jack or grabs around. Food
is very inexpensive as far as meals a couple of
dollars a meal, three to five dollars per meal at
a restaurant, groceries and food is you know, just maybe
one hundred and fifty dollars a month on that And
(12:35):
usually I just cooked breakfast and I pretty much eat
the rest out, eat out the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
If objectively, the costs and balie are probably you know, half,
roughly fifty maybe sixty percent for some or if you're
coming from somewhere like New York or San Francisco, they're
probably twenty or thirty percent, right, Like, they're probably a fraction.
But I think one of the things that I'm really
interested in is how that that shift and cost of
(13:05):
living or ge arbitrage affects your quality of life. So, like,
what does it feel like to you, like that first
time you spent you know, months or like a real
long term stay in BALI, How did it affect you?
How did you feel psychologically?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You sleep better at night knowing that your money's going
to go a lot farther than it had previously, right,
and you don't need to work as hard as you
have to at home to make ends meet. So I've
still kept up growing my income a year after year,
(13:43):
you know, but I don't need to. It's just because
I love what I do. And I think for some
people you can absolutely just like maybe it worked part fine,
and step back and work less and live have more time,
(14:05):
more free time to actually live. So I think being
able to like slow down more is kind of what's
great about that.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That resonates with me deeply, Like I think of myself
a tired early lifestyle and retired early to me is
just that it's about a lifetile choice where I've left
any kind of nine to five grind, any kind of
management responsibility to anyone who's not me or my family,
and I still do some work and different things that
(14:38):
earn income. I'm only doing things that I love, Like
I'm only doing things that I love. It's a mental
perspective shift for me. Regardless of what you choose to
do in your eight hours a day, how you feel
once those eight hours actually belong to you. It sounds
like you have a pretty solid sort of rhythm or
routine through your year, and how you you know you
(15:00):
abroad and back home. You're not permanently resettled to Southeast Asia,
so you do have a sort of migration than a
nomad to me, But tell me about that process how
to do it now?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I call myself a hybrid nomad, which means that I'm
home half the year and I'm gone half the year.
So that's what's great about being a digital nomad is
like you're going to make it however you want, Like
you don't have to leave forever and be on the
road twelve months oal of year to be a digital nomad.
But for me, over the years, as I was traveling
(15:35):
and coming home during the summers, I started buying. I
started getting into investing myself. After watching my friend Lori,
who I helped as an agent, do all these deals,
I started investing myself. So I started flipping houses when
I was home, and I started buying houses, renovating and
renting them out. And I actually built up a portfolio
(15:56):
of rental properties that I still own it managed today
that bring me in and fairly passive income each month.
And I use that in quotes because I still manage
my properties personally and so it does take some work,
but overall it's you know, it's not a significant amount
of work until you know, someone trashes a property or
(16:18):
something like that happens, which can come up. So kind
of how my year works is during the summertime. If
I buy something, I buy a new house, it's when
I'm here in the summertime I do the renovation. I
get to rented out before I leave for winter. And
I've also made it so that I have like a
(16:40):
lock box hidden on every single house that I can
get a contractor in there if the toilet's broke and
the resident is at work and I'm on the other
side of the world. So I have systems in place
for those types of things. I also don't let my
leases expire during the winter time, and I tell all
(17:02):
my residents like, look, you don't want to move in
the middle of winter. Anyhow, nobody does and they all
agree with me. And so it works out where lisas
expire when I'm here. So if there are moves out
move outs, I'm here to manage it. I could get
someone to oversee it even if I was gone, but
I like to get in and see it myself and
(17:22):
really kind of get things back in the shape if
they got let go, and so that's kind of like
the that's like my real estate working season isn't and
at summertime.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
In home, and.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Then when I go away for the winter, it kind
of just goes into like much less just maintenance mode.
Right the heats broke they call me the toilet sproke,
they call me. There's not much else going on, and
the cash flow coming from that helps cover my monthly
cost both here at home and in Bali. And then
(18:03):
I have other streams of income with coaching and stuff
as well.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Tell me how your whole thing. I found you through
your podcast Digital Nomad Nation, and then the sort of
business aspect of consulting and set through height at the
digital products. I don't know anything about that. So yeah,
I mean tell me about the podcast for you know,
start to finish the whole journey of beginning it and
(18:28):
doing it.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, So it really started with me having my basis
covered with the real estate and also feeling like if
I renovate another three bedroom one back, like I'm just
gonna go kind of insane, like it's I could do
it in my sleep, and like I'm still out there
looking for property, but it's got to be something that
I just have to have. At this point, I don't
(18:52):
need it anymore. And so I was really needing to
fill my time because I can't just on the beach
and hang out like you said, I'd be drinking beers
at like Tuesday morning at eleven am if I had
nothing to do. So I really wanted to do something
that was giving back, like you know, like all those
(19:14):
bloggers that I read in Tim Ferris's book and reading Vegabonding.
If it wasn't for all those guys putting out those information,
I would have never discovered travel. I would have never
discovered becoming a digital nomad. So I started. I helped,
actually helped a friend first who I met Mexico. He
was working at a job that was a nine to
(19:36):
five as a social media marketing manager in the office,
and I was like, look, you could totally do this
same thing, but transition into freelancing. So we got him
in the freelancing on fiver and upwork doing the same
thing he was for the company at home in Mexico,
(20:00):
working in the office, and we fived x his income
and he started because he started working for US clients
and making US dollars and then was free to start
traveling as a digital nomad within like six months, and
it has continued to do that for a couple of years.
So I helped my friend do that, and then that's
(20:22):
when I realized, like, oh, I can like actually help
anybody that's this because I get a lot of questions
from people on my Instagram or whatever, like how there's
a million questions of how you do this, how do
you make income? Where do you know where to go?
You know, the costs, the visas, the taxes, all that.
So I started doing one online coaching and then I
(20:46):
also started the podcast Digital Nomad Nation, where I interviewed
other digital nomads to hear their stories so that other
people are inspired. And then I'm about to launch here
in the next month or so, really big nine module
(21:06):
course that's going to be six to ten hours of video,
tons of worksheets, taking someone who's either in a remote
job or in not in a remote job, doesn't matter
where you are in life from you know, working fast
food like I was my one of my one of
two jobs was working fast food. You could be working
(21:27):
fast food to you know, laptop on the beach in Thailand.
I go through everything that you need to know from
start to finish. So that's the project that I'm working
on now. It super excited to get out to people
that's going to be at a much lower price point
than you know, hiring me one on one to do
(21:48):
something custom with you. So just really feeling like I
need to get back and help other people get their
freedom and become location independent.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So let's shift away now from money work stuff to
more a little bit more like life and culture stuff.
So long term, do you think you're going to continue
your sort of nomadic migrations. Do you think eventually you
might move permanently. I don't want to give a spoiler
(22:20):
for the audience, So do you live in one of
your rental houses? What's your living situation like now? In Virginia.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I've been living on my sailboat ever since I became
a nomad. I always thought it'd be cool to live
on a sailboat. I've always been a little bit of
a minimalist. And this is a sweet one bedroom apartment
on the water like in Virginia that's going to be
like I don't know, I started the price of what
a one bedroom apartment on the water would cost here
(22:51):
and rent maybe a quarter of the price, you know,
considering like my monthly slippy and insurance and stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
But curious, what is it? What's what's your what's your
slip feet? What's your insurance? Do you own the boat?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Right? I pay cash for the boat. I got a
good deal in the boat. And my slip fee is
three hundred and forty dollars a month. My power mill
is anywhere from like fifty to one hundred dollars a month,
and my insurance is about seventy dollars a month. That's
(23:32):
my lost.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Living.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's like a month. Yeah, I mean, and I don't
have to mow grass, right, but it's a boat. I'm
always fixing stuff and like that never ends. There's always
boat maintenance, and you got to really enjoy that. And
you need to be handy and be able to fix
(23:55):
some things yourself. If you got to hire that stuff out,
it's not going to be worth it because it gets
expensive quick. But yeah, and I can move it, I
can sail it, I can take it, you know anywhere.
I'm not ready for the Bahamas yet. I want some
solar panels and a water maker and stuff like that.
(24:17):
So down the road, that's going to be the case.
But to answer your other question, what's it looked like
in the future. I spent last winter six months in Bali.
That was my first time staying in one place for
six months. And even when I was in Bali, I
(24:38):
bounced around to a bunch of places because I was like,
I got to find the right place, and I did
look at buying some real estate there. So I think
somewhere in that region, I might buy a buy a
property there eventually and then continue to stay on the
boat when I'm home. And so I think the future
looks like like a villa in Bali and maybe a
(25:00):
villa somewhere else, and then the boat in the States,
and I kind of just bounce around.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
If you could get your sailboat over here and be
able to sail around the Philippines, wow, or the other islands.
Property on Lombok just like big yeah, land free, whole land.
You can buy it for thirty years to build on
and just like it's stunning surf break gorgeous beaches like
untouched remote They were twenty thousand US dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It's crazy. And you know Indonesia has seventeen thousand islands,
So like it's slowly expanding. You know, you got the
Gilly Islands right off the coast. You got new Soupannita
and Neusa Loambang and which have the famous beaches like
that you see like on online that everyone thinks that
are in Bali. And then Lombok. Yeah, I think it's
(25:48):
going to be the next Bali as far as you know.
There's a there's a lot of untouched nature there. It's
it's fairly close. They do have an airport and yeah,
the place I was looking at a one bedroom that
was new construction, but someone had owned it for one year,
so slightly used with a shared pool. One bedroom fully furnished.
(26:13):
In Ulawa too, five minutes from one of the smaller beaches,
was one hundred and twenty five thousand for a twenty
three year lease hold, and then you can get an
additional ten years for about eight thousand dollars. So in
(26:35):
Bali you can't own real estate outright unless you have
an Indonesian on the type on the deed or the title.
For you have this complicated process of owning a business
in Indonesia, and then all the money needs to stay
in Indonesia gets complicated. So that really leaves the power
of what gets sold to foreigners with the locals, which
(27:01):
I think is great because if it was where you
could come in and buy it out right, the whole
place would just not even be bally anymore. It would
just be like skyscrapers field Cambodia. I haven't, I haven't,
but I've seen I've seen it. Yes, it would be
(27:21):
completely ruined. So but there's good deals to be had
in Bali still Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
He's actually here right now with him and his family.
His wife is Indonesia and they do their property developers there.
They do they buy and build and they do well.
What do you think is the biggest mixed conception people
back home have about about your life and the lifestyle
you live.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
People just assume that I have a ton of money
just because I'm constantly traveling all over the place and
like beautiful places and living in these places. But and
I'm not doing bad. I'm not gonna lie. But it's
not also not it's not like you need a ton
(28:10):
of money to do what I'm doing right, And like
I've also been very creative over the years with travel,
hacking and like flying with points in miles, like all
over the world not paying for any flights. So if
you can teleport to somewhere without even any costs pretty
(28:32):
much and then the place is half the price to
where you're living, it's a no brainer. But I think
a lot of people just think that, you know, it
costs a ton of money, and that that you're rich.
I think a lot of people think that just digital
nomads are making tons of money, and it's it's really
(28:54):
not the case.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
We've already been over the mask. But yeah, you certainly
don't have to be rich to'd live it too. I
was atoller a month life, so when I thought when
retire ely because I don't feel like get another job,
it was pretty simple. I was like, Okay, I just
need to make twelve hundred a month online.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
It's an eye opener, like people, you know, people hearing
this are like, what you know, Like that's probably more
than their rent in North America, way more expensive than
where I am, you know, So it's it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Well, that was probably my biggest barrier in the move
to Vietnam. I'd worked other places internationally before as a teacher,
and the salaries had already had always been better, and
I had a real mental block, Like I kind of
like choked up when in the job interview they told
me it was a zoom interview and they told me
what they're gonna pay me. I was like, well, you're
offering me what like? And they're like, well, come on, look,
(29:48):
go to your research. Look at it. We promise you'll
be able to save lots of that salary. And I
was like, you know, I read to I like you
had read Tim Ferris and stuff already. I've read stuff
with geo abitrage. This is twenty nineteen. Wasn't like totally
unheard of. So I was like, okay, I'll do my research.
But I was pretty tensetive. I've been all over the
world already. At that point, I really understood you could
(30:09):
live with Jesus. But it's still just when you see
the sort of sticker price, it's really hard, you know,
it's really hard. Yeah, I can take half the money
and live twice as well. Right, it just doesn't make sense.
It doesn't. It doesn't click until you do it experientially.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
It's kind of productive, like if it sounds too good
to be true, it's not true, right, Like it kind
of sounds like a scam almost, but it's just how
it works, you know, like it does work.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
How do you feel adjusted to these places as someone
with some sort of transient aspect of your life, Like
do you feel safe, grounded, welcomed by local people? Why
did this last year you choose to stay in one
place the whole time? You know? How is that shift
changed silver time?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It all depends on the place, but specifically Southeast Asia
I think feels extremely safe to me. In general, I've
been to lots of countries in Southeast Asia, and I
also felt very welcome from everywhere. I would say that
Bally sticks out to me in the fact that I
(31:23):
feel the most welcome by the locals in Bali. They're
just so kind and so outgoing and so generous and English.
It's easy to get around with English and Bali. And
why did I stay there the past six months? It
(31:45):
was my fourth time to Bali, and I just I
really do love the people in the culture, but also
the weather. For me, it's like sunny and I'm just
gonna use fahrenheit because that's what I know is the best.
Eighty five and five degrees and sunny every single day
all year round, and there's beaches and volcanoes, and there's jungles,
(32:10):
and there's lots of digital nomads and tours from all
over the world, so you get exposed to people from
all over the world as well, especially if you're young.
You're I'm not, I just turned forty, but if you're
single on dating, you get to date with people that
are from all over the world and meet people that
(32:33):
from all over the world. So that's really nice as well.
It comes down to also the price just being amazing
and more affordable. It's just a great place to be
when it's really cold here at home and gets dark
at four pm.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
If you could travel back in time and talk to
you know, young Ryan working two jobs, working fast food, hustling,
never having left America even over land to Costa Rica,
and never having done a trip in an RV. What's
the thing about your forty year old self that that
kid just wouldn't believe.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
If you told me what my life is like now
and how many countries I've seen, and how I'm doing
work that I love and then I'm making good money
doing it, and I build up several businesses, and I
live on one of the most beautiful islands in the
world six months out of the year. But I have
(33:30):
the choice to live anywhere six months out of the year,
and I'm living on my boat, like everything about how
I'm living now. If you told twenty something year old
Ryan who is working fast food in the warehouse at
night for a decade, would just be like, yeah, that's
completely bullshit. I would give them some advice, like you
(33:52):
need to quit and get out there and go go
get on this sooner.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Do it now, do it faster, don't wait. How do
you find as someone who's back and forth a lot,
how do you find life socializing and making friends both,
you know, maintaining relationships back home, making relationships, do dating,
friendships everything.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, so it's really uh, dating is similar at both places.
You know, I've gotten into like long distance relationships. That's
not ideal, you know. I'm looking for, like to find
that perfect digital nomad who wants to you know, live
in the States on the sale about six months out
(34:36):
of the year and somewhere cool to the other six months,
so that person will show up any minute. But as
far as the like life goes with friends and family,
I think the hybrid nomad thing and me being home
six months is really the perfect case scenario because I
come home and I can reconnect with all those folks.
(34:57):
I plug right back in like I wasn't almost gone, really,
and everyone's even more excited to hang out with me
because it's the summer. Ryan's back in town. We hadn't
seen him six months, And honestly, sometimes it's a little overwhelming,
like because I'm working, and like I'm working a lot
on a project, Like I have a lot of people
(35:19):
that want I want to hang out and want my
time now that I'm back, and like I'm doing my
best to you know, hang out with everybody. And I'm
an introvert too, so it does make it challenging just
having that social battery sometimes, but it is good for
keeping up with friends, family and having it, and that's
(35:41):
something that I look forward to, Like what I've gone
in BALI coming home to be able to hang out
with the people that I haven't seen for so long.
So I think it works out really well in that regard.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Well, So I often do the what's the advice you
would get for someone who's on the fence and hasn't
left yet, But I kind of feel like we've covered
that in some ways, so Instead, I'm going to say,
what's your advice for someone who wants a podcast and
wants to start their own podcast in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Well, with someone starting, I would say, definitely do video
and start. Make sure it's on YouTube, because the statistics
say that's where most people are finding your podcast, and
being found is like the biggest thing for your podcast
to grow. It's just people knowing that you exist, right
(36:38):
And YouTube, I think is the second largest search engine
in the world besides Google, so people are searching there
for it. I'm I didn't start there. Mine's on all
the audio platforms first, and we're slowly migrating there. So
I would say, if you're thinking about it, that's the
(37:00):
first step. Put it on YouTube. But make sure that
whatever you're you're talking about, or whatever your goal is,
it should maybe not to be make money right away
because that's a hard thing to do with podcasts, but
just create value for people in some way.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
That's the exact same thing I say about YouTube, having
come in the opposite direction where I started as a
YouTuber or a video maker and then transitioned into conversational
podcasting on that video platform. The biggest thing forget the camera,
forget the lights, the tech, the editing. That stuff may
or may not come later. The number one thing do
(37:44):
you know who your audience is and are you saying
Are you saying something valuable to them? Are you just
giving some something valuable, which if you're a comedian it
could just be making them laugh, but whatever it is,
are you are you delivering that value to them in
their day? What's the question? I didn't ask? What's one
thing when you were coming on you know, you're gonna
come on the cost of living a broad pod tonight
and you thought, oh, I'm sure we're going to talk
(38:05):
about this, or I'm sure Evan will ask me this,
and I didn't do it? Or what's a question? You know?
What's the burning thing that you didn't get to say
that you want to say?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
I would just tell people that if you if you're
really interested, either moving abroad or just being a digital nomad,
get out there and try it. Do a test runt.
You don't have to commit one hundred percent sell your
house and divorce your wife and get rid of your
pets and all this stuff just to make it happen.
(38:39):
You can totally do it all, like with a family
of five can be move abroad and be digital nomads.
You can travel with pets, you can figure out the
housing situation, all these things that are going through your
mind that like what do I need to do? It's
all there's an answer for everything. And in the meantime,
(39:02):
like just get out there and see some places and
fall in love with the place and then and then
make their plan for your escape.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
That's beautiful advice. Man. Thank you so much for coming
on the Cost of Living Abroad. Ryan. Tell everyone listening
and watching where they can find you and how they
can get in touch with you.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Sure so, I'm the Digital Nomad Coach on Instagram, Facebook
and YouTube, and you can download my free guide at
thedigital Nomadcoach dot com and check out the podcast Digital
Nomad Nation.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I'm Evan A and thanks for listening to the Cost
of Living a broad Pod. For full interviews, find us
on YouTube at cost of Living a broad Pod. Before
we wrap up, I just wanted to let you know
that if you're struggling with the cost of living crisis
back at home and looking for a sustainable and affordable
way to relocate your life abroad, check out our resources,
(39:57):
courses and community at Cost of Living and Abroad dot
Com thanks so much. New episodes air Sunday night in Bangkok.
Welcome the cost of living abroad. My guest today is
Ryan Mellon, the host of Digital Nomad Nation. I was
on his show last week and now having him on
here today, So it's going to tell us about his
entire experience traveling the world, how he affords and is
able to live in Bali half of the year, his
entire business and enterprise and earning online game plan. Why
(00:22):
don't you tell me what is the setting off point
or the catalyst for you to be a digital nomad?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
And seven years ago I was working out two jobs
fourteen hours a day, six days a week, and I
realized that that was for the birds, and it was
terrible and I was just like completely burnt out. So
I did that more from all of my twenties. For
a decade, I worked two jobs, and so I was
(00:52):
watching some video bloggers and reading Nomadic Matts blog and
I read four hour work week, and then I read
Vagabonding and that all just completely opened my mind to
like getting out there and travel. And so while I
still have my two jobs, I managed to get two
(01:15):
weeks off at the same time at both jobs, which
took an incredible amount of negotiation. In the US, we
get a very little amount of vacation, and they never
want you to take it back to back. So I
got two weeks off. I went to Flu to Costa
Rica by myself, stayed in a hostel in San Jose,
(01:36):
never been in a hospital in my life, didn't speak
any Spanish, new no one, and I did Costa Rica
for two weeks, and I was like climbing volcanoes and
swimming in crater lakes and jump lining through or zip
lining through jungles, and hitting both coasts of the beaches there,
(01:58):
both Pacific and the carib In and just met some
amazing people. I met people that have been traveling for years,
and that kind of blew my mind. When I met
some of those folks. I didn't even know that was
a possibility. Right, I'm on these two weeks to get
out of my two prisons that I had at work
(02:19):
back at home. And so I came back from my
vacation not like refreshed and ready to go back to work,
but I came back like I really got to make
some major changes in my life, Like I want to
travel more. Like I can't just only do one or
two weeks here and there. It's much more expensive when
(02:41):
you just go for short periods than longer periods, as
I was to find out later. So as the story
goes along, I was having drinks with friends, as all
great ideas come up with drinks with friends, and they
were like, when we retire, we want to do a
road trip with the US twenty three or we want
(03:01):
to do as many states as weekend over one year,
like in an RV. And I'm like, well, why are
we waiting? Why would you wait till you retire, Like
I'm still having this high coming off this trip, I'm like,
let's let's do this. I'm totally down. I'll go with you,
and like, let's save up enough money for one year
(03:24):
so that we don't have to work. We'll find an RV,
we'll quit our jobs, and we'll just figure it out
when we get back, get our jobs back, get new jobs,
whatever doesn't matter. We were like rented out our houses,
we gave our cars to friends and family. We saved
up enough money so we didn't have to work, and
so we did that one year road trip and we
(03:47):
did twenty three states in that one year, and it
was an absolutely epic experience. But like six months into it,
I started to realize, like, man, this thing's coming to
an end pretty quick, and I'm going to have to
go back to my old jobs, working two jobs. I
don't know, really, I don't even know. And then I
(04:08):
reached out to a good friend who was a real
estate investor. She was buying a lot of houses, flipping
flipping houses and buying rentolds, and I also had my
real estate license, so not only was I working two jobs,
I was also dabbling a little bit in a real
estate with my two jobs. And I called her and
I said, you know, can I help you find some
(04:30):
deals while I'm traveling? And She's like absolutely, you know,
I don't care where you are, Like, if you can
help me find deals, that's great. So I ended up
building a system where I was able to just blast
out offers all over the place while I'm in the
RB out of my state for my friend who's in Virginia,
(04:55):
and we ended up doing like twenty to twenty five
deals in those last six months of me on the road.
And then I got home and I realized, like, wow,
I'm fully remote, Like I'm a digital nomad. It wasn't
even to work back then. This is like now, you know,
end of twenty eighteen beginning of twenty nineteen, I'm like,
I don't have to go back to my jobs. And
(05:17):
so I was home for maybe like a couple weeks
or a month or so, stayed with some family, kept
left my house being rented out, and then I jumped
on a plane and I went to New Zealand. And
then I did six eight countries and six months, and
(05:38):
that was twenty nineteen, and then I've been coming home
every summer since for six months and traveling every winter
for the past seven years.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Beautiful. Wow, So it really it was a real life
changing moment that first time you went away for two weeks.
You kind of never looked back after that. I'm really
curious about the idea that you sort of accidentally started
working remote. So let's can we dig into that a
little bit, like just break out for me. I don't
know a ton about the real estate market, and I'm
(06:13):
sure lots of audience members are curious about that. But
what was this process that you were doing in the
RV that was working or that turned into something real
and profitable.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, So I was a real estate agent working for
a broker, and you know, you think of a typical
real estate agent of actually being in person taking people
to go look at houses, writing offers, handing, delivering them
to the sellers in person and all that. But what
we were focused on was buying houses that were strictly
(06:48):
in distress, so like bank owned properties, repossessed for closed properties.
And at that time everything was starting to become digital,
where I could send everything off for digital signatures. Sometimes
we needed like a real signature, but it could be
(07:09):
scanned and sent through. So we managed to work it
so that I was just finding the deals. Then I
had another agent in my office who was helping out
and was getting a cut of the proceeds to the sales,
and so she would go and actually videotape the house
(07:31):
from top to bottom so that my client could watch
it on YouTube and I could check it out, and
then we would do the basic math of how much
money we thought it needed in renovations. Because I had
seen her, she kind of taught us how to do that,
(07:51):
and then we would just start blasting off offers to
the banks and everyone, and then my client would only
ever look at this stuff until we had it under contract,
and then she would go through and look at it
and it was usually a good enough deal that she
would ninety five percent of the time buy the properties
(08:14):
that we got under contract for her. So that's how
that that's kind of how that worked. But mainly doing paperwork,
finding the stuff online, having someone to go out and
videotape it, and then sending the contracts for digital signatures,
and then just waiting that process out so closing, closing
(08:35):
comes and then I would have them direct deposit my
commission check from my broker into my bank account.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Beautiful man. I think that's an interesting story as well,
because there's so many people who are probably doing a
job that they could do remotely or at least like
eighty percent remotely. And I think there was you know,
the sort of leaving the officing in COVID opened a
lot of people's eyes. But the reality was a big part,
like a big part of Tim Ferris in the four
(09:04):
hour work week. He was not telling people to like quit,
He wasn't telling people to like, you know, do fire
and like save up a number and never work again.
That that book is like a blue plan essentially to
do what you did right, to be like there you
turn your office job into a job where you can
be remote where you don't have to be responsible again
yet before those words, right before digital nomad, before you
(09:26):
know remote or sort of location independent work. That's super cool, man.
So after New Zealand, how did you shift to? Southeast Asia?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And New Zealand, Australia, Bali, Thiland, Singapore, Malaysia, I think China,
and then I ended up in Cuba, so all over
the place. But yeah, New Zealand was amazing. My only
(10:00):
is it it's expensive to be there, right, you know,
it's a beautiful place, but it's not like one of
those geo arbitrage places where you go and live and
it's cheaper. It's it's quite expensive. It was an amazing trip.
When I got to Bali, I really fell in love
with the culture and the natural nests of the island,
(10:23):
having the jungle and the beaches, boat and you have
volcanoes and and then the culture is very cool there.
And then the cost. Just kind of seeing how how
much less it costs to be there and live there
and travel there than what I'm used to at home
(10:46):
was a real big game changer. And I think you
know you have this it's similar in most of Southeast Asia.
It's significantly less.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I think Balia has gotten more expensive over the years.
It's one of the higher end places compared to like
especially like Vietnam and some parts of Thailand. But it's
still cheaper than me being at home for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah. So let's let's get into the into some of
the numbers. Let's break down, if you could, your sort
of monthly cost, monthly expenses in Virginia when you're living
a sort of more traditional lifestyle, right, your food, your groceries,
your rent, your cable bill, your phone bill, all that,
all those basics.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, it costs per month living here is going to
be easily three to four thousand dollars on you know,
if you're still being on top of it and you're
renting a reasonable reasonable place, I would say per month. Uh,
and in Bali it can be anywhere from if you're
(11:50):
in the mid range, I would say, you know, not
like backpacker trying to be as cheap as possible, but
not you don't need a private pool, but you do
want to. I'm at villa maybe like two thousand dollars
a month approximately, And I would say that that's your rent,
that's your transportation, you know, having a scooter if you
(12:13):
want or just taking go jack or grabs around. Food
is very inexpensive as far as meals a couple of
dollars a meal, three to five dollars per meal at
a restaurant, groceries and food is you know, just maybe
one hundred and fifty dollars a month on that And
(12:35):
usually I just cooked breakfast and I pretty much eat
the rest out, eat out the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
If objectively, the costs and balie are probably you know, half,
roughly fifty maybe sixty percent for some or if you're
coming from somewhere like New York or San Francisco, they're
probably twenty or thirty percent, right, Like, they're probably a fraction.
But I think one of the things that I'm really
interested in is how that that shift and cost of
(13:05):
living or ge arbitrage affects your quality of life. So, like,
what does it feel like to you, like that first
time you spent you know, months or like a real
long term stay in BALI, How did it affect you?
How did you feel psychologically?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You sleep better at night knowing that your money's going
to go a lot farther than it had previously, right,
and you don't need to work as hard as you
have to at home to make ends meet. So I've
still kept up growing my income a year after year,
(13:43):
you know, but I don't need to. It's just because
I love what I do. And I think for some
people you can absolutely just like maybe it worked part fine,
and step back and work less and live have more time,
(14:05):
more free time to actually live. So I think being
able to like slow down more is kind of what's
great about that.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That resonates with me deeply, Like I think of myself
a tired early lifestyle and retired early to me is
just that it's about a lifetile choice where I've left
any kind of nine to five grind, any kind of
management responsibility to anyone who's not me or my family,
and I still do some work and different things that
(14:38):
earn income. I'm only doing things that I love, Like
I'm only doing things that I love. It's a mental
perspective shift for me. Regardless of what you choose to
do in your eight hours a day, how you feel
once those eight hours actually belong to you. It sounds
like you have a pretty solid sort of rhythm or
routine through your year, and how you you know you
(15:00):
abroad and back home. You're not permanently resettled to Southeast Asia,
so you do have a sort of migration than a
nomad to me, But tell me about that process how
to do it now?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I call myself a hybrid nomad, which means that I'm
home half the year and I'm gone half the year.
So that's what's great about being a digital nomad is
like you're going to make it however you want, Like
you don't have to leave forever and be on the
road twelve months oal of year to be a digital nomad.
But for me, over the years, as I was traveling
(15:35):
and coming home during the summers, I started buying. I
started getting into investing myself. After watching my friend Lori,
who I helped as an agent, do all these deals,
I started investing myself. So I started flipping houses when
I was home, and I started buying houses, renovating and
renting them out. And I actually built up a portfolio
(15:56):
of rental properties that I still own it managed today
that bring me in and fairly passive income each month.
And I use that in quotes because I still manage
my properties personally and so it does take some work,
but overall it's you know, it's not a significant amount
of work until you know, someone trashes a property or
(16:18):
something like that happens, which can come up. So kind
of how my year works is during the summertime. If
I buy something, I buy a new house, it's when
I'm here in the summertime I do the renovation. I
get to rented out before I leave for winter. And
I've also made it so that I have like a
(16:40):
lock box hidden on every single house that I can
get a contractor in there if the toilet's broke and
the resident is at work and I'm on the other
side of the world. So I have systems in place
for those types of things. I also don't let my
leases expire during the winter time, and I tell all
(17:02):
my residents like, look, you don't want to move in
the middle of winter. Anyhow, nobody does and they all
agree with me. And so it works out where lisas
expire when I'm here. So if there are moves out
move outs, I'm here to manage it. I could get
someone to oversee it even if I was gone, but
I like to get in and see it myself and
(17:22):
really kind of get things back in the shape if
they got let go, and so that's kind of like
the that's like my real estate working season isn't and
at summertime.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
In home, and.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Then when I go away for the winter, it kind
of just goes into like much less just maintenance mode.
Right the heats broke they call me the toilet sproke,
they call me. There's not much else going on, and
the cash flow coming from that helps cover my monthly
cost both here at home and in Bali. And then
(18:03):
I have other streams of income with coaching and stuff
as well.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Tell me how your whole thing. I found you through
your podcast Digital Nomad Nation, and then the sort of
business aspect of consulting and set through height at the
digital products. I don't know anything about that. So yeah,
I mean tell me about the podcast for you know,
start to finish the whole journey of beginning it and
(18:28):
doing it.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, So it really started with me having my basis
covered with the real estate and also feeling like if
I renovate another three bedroom one back, like I'm just
gonna go kind of insane, like it's I could do
it in my sleep, and like I'm still out there
looking for property, but it's got to be something that
I just have to have. At this point, I don't
(18:52):
need it anymore. And so I was really needing to
fill my time because I can't just on the beach
and hang out like you said, I'd be drinking beers
at like Tuesday morning at eleven am if I had
nothing to do. So I really wanted to do something
that was giving back, like you know, like all those
(19:14):
bloggers that I read in Tim Ferris's book and reading Vegabonding.
If it wasn't for all those guys putting out those information,
I would have never discovered travel. I would have never
discovered becoming a digital nomad. So I started. I helped,
actually helped a friend first who I met Mexico. He
was working at a job that was a nine to
(19:36):
five as a social media marketing manager in the office,
and I was like, look, you could totally do this
same thing, but transition into freelancing. So we got him
in the freelancing on fiver and upwork doing the same
thing he was for the company at home in Mexico,
(20:00):
working in the office, and we fived x his income
and he started because he started working for US clients
and making US dollars and then was free to start
traveling as a digital nomad within like six months, and
it has continued to do that for a couple of years.
So I helped my friend do that, and then that's
(20:22):
when I realized, like, oh, I can like actually help
anybody that's this because I get a lot of questions
from people on my Instagram or whatever, like how there's
a million questions of how you do this, how do
you make income? Where do you know where to go?
You know, the costs, the visas, the taxes, all that.
So I started doing one online coaching and then I
(20:46):
also started the podcast Digital Nomad Nation, where I interviewed
other digital nomads to hear their stories so that other
people are inspired. And then I'm about to launch here
in the next month or so, really big nine module
(21:06):
course that's going to be six to ten hours of video,
tons of worksheets, taking someone who's either in a remote
job or in not in a remote job, doesn't matter
where you are in life from you know, working fast
food like I was my one of my one of
two jobs was working fast food. You could be working
(21:27):
fast food to you know, laptop on the beach in Thailand.
I go through everything that you need to know from
start to finish. So that's the project that I'm working
on now. It super excited to get out to people
that's going to be at a much lower price point
than you know, hiring me one on one to do
(21:48):
something custom with you. So just really feeling like I
need to get back and help other people get their
freedom and become location independent.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So let's shift away now from money work stuff to
more a little bit more like life and culture stuff.
So long term, do you think you're going to continue
your sort of nomadic migrations. Do you think eventually you
might move permanently. I don't want to give a spoiler
(22:20):
for the audience, So do you live in one of
your rental houses? What's your living situation like now? In Virginia.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I've been living on my sailboat ever since I became
a nomad. I always thought it'd be cool to live
on a sailboat. I've always been a little bit of
a minimalist. And this is a sweet one bedroom apartment
on the water like in Virginia that's going to be
like I don't know, I started the price of what
a one bedroom apartment on the water would cost here
(22:51):
and rent maybe a quarter of the price, you know,
considering like my monthly slippy and insurance and stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
But curious, what is it? What's what's your what's your
slip feet? What's your insurance? Do you own the boat?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Right? I pay cash for the boat. I got a
good deal in the boat. And my slip fee is
three hundred and forty dollars a month. My power mill
is anywhere from like fifty to one hundred dollars a month,
and my insurance is about seventy dollars a month. That's
(23:32):
my lost.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Living.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's like a month. Yeah, I mean, and I don't
have to mow grass, right, but it's a boat. I'm
always fixing stuff and like that never ends. There's always
boat maintenance, and you got to really enjoy that. And
you need to be handy and be able to fix
(23:55):
some things yourself. If you got to hire that stuff out,
it's not going to be worth it because it gets
expensive quick. But yeah, and I can move it, I
can sail it, I can take it, you know anywhere.
I'm not ready for the Bahamas yet. I want some
solar panels and a water maker and stuff like that.
(24:17):
So down the road, that's going to be the case.
But to answer your other question, what's it looked like
in the future. I spent last winter six months in Bali.
That was my first time staying in one place for
six months. And even when I was in Bali, I
(24:38):
bounced around to a bunch of places because I was like,
I got to find the right place, and I did
look at buying some real estate there. So I think
somewhere in that region, I might buy a buy a
property there eventually and then continue to stay on the
boat when I'm home. And so I think the future
looks like like a villa in Bali and maybe a
(25:00):
villa somewhere else, and then the boat in the States,
and I kind of just bounce around.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
If you could get your sailboat over here and be
able to sail around the Philippines, wow, or the other islands.
Property on Lombok just like big yeah, land free, whole land.
You can buy it for thirty years to build on
and just like it's stunning surf break gorgeous beaches like
untouched remote They were twenty thousand US dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It's crazy. And you know Indonesia has seventeen thousand islands,
So like it's slowly expanding. You know, you got the
Gilly Islands right off the coast. You got new Soupannita
and Neusa Loambang and which have the famous beaches like
that you see like on online that everyone thinks that
are in Bali. And then Lombok. Yeah, I think it's
(25:48):
going to be the next Bali as far as you know.
There's a there's a lot of untouched nature there. It's
it's fairly close. They do have an airport and yeah,
the place I was looking at a one bedroom that
was new construction, but someone had owned it for one year,
so slightly used with a shared pool. One bedroom fully furnished.
(26:13):
In Ulawa too, five minutes from one of the smaller beaches,
was one hundred and twenty five thousand for a twenty
three year lease hold, and then you can get an
additional ten years for about eight thousand dollars. So in
(26:35):
Bali you can't own real estate outright unless you have
an Indonesian on the type on the deed or the title.
For you have this complicated process of owning a business
in Indonesia, and then all the money needs to stay
in Indonesia gets complicated. So that really leaves the power
of what gets sold to foreigners with the locals, which
(27:01):
I think is great because if it was where you
could come in and buy it out right, the whole
place would just not even be bally anymore. It would
just be like skyscrapers field Cambodia. I haven't, I haven't,
but I've seen I've seen it. Yes, it would be
(27:21):
completely ruined. So but there's good deals to be had
in Bali still Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
He's actually here right now with him and his family.
His wife is Indonesia and they do their property developers there.
They do they buy and build and they do well.
What do you think is the biggest mixed conception people
back home have about about your life and the lifestyle
you live.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
People just assume that I have a ton of money
just because I'm constantly traveling all over the place and
like beautiful places and living in these places. But and
I'm not doing bad. I'm not gonna lie. But it's
not also not it's not like you need a ton
(28:10):
of money to do what I'm doing right, And like
I've also been very creative over the years with travel,
hacking and like flying with points in miles, like all
over the world not paying for any flights. So if
you can teleport to somewhere without even any costs pretty
(28:32):
much and then the place is half the price to
where you're living, it's a no brainer. But I think
a lot of people just think that, you know, it
costs a ton of money, and that that you're rich.
I think a lot of people think that just digital
nomads are making tons of money, and it's it's really
(28:54):
not the case.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
We've already been over the mask. But yeah, you certainly
don't have to be rich to'd live it too. I
was atoller a month life, so when I thought when
retire ely because I don't feel like get another job,
it was pretty simple. I was like, Okay, I just
need to make twelve hundred a month online.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
It's an eye opener, like people, you know, people hearing
this are like, what you know, Like that's probably more
than their rent in North America, way more expensive than
where I am, you know, So it's it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Well, that was probably my biggest barrier in the move
to Vietnam. I'd worked other places internationally before as a teacher,
and the salaries had already had always been better, and
I had a real mental block, Like I kind of
like choked up when in the job interview they told
me it was a zoom interview and they told me
what they're gonna pay me. I was like, well, you're
offering me what like? And they're like, well, come on, look,
(29:48):
go to your research. Look at it. We promise you'll
be able to save lots of that salary. And I
was like, you know, I read to I like you
had read Tim Ferris and stuff already. I've read stuff
with geo abitrage. This is twenty nineteen. Wasn't like totally
unheard of. So I was like, okay, I'll do my research.
But I was pretty tensetive. I've been all over the
world already. At that point, I really understood you could
(30:09):
live with Jesus. But it's still just when you see
the sort of sticker price, it's really hard, you know,
it's really hard. Yeah, I can take half the money
and live twice as well. Right, it just doesn't make sense.
It doesn't. It doesn't click until you do it experientially.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
It's kind of productive, like if it sounds too good
to be true, it's not true, right, Like it kind
of sounds like a scam almost, but it's just how
it works, you know, like it does work.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
How do you feel adjusted to these places as someone
with some sort of transient aspect of your life, Like
do you feel safe, grounded, welcomed by local people? Why
did this last year you choose to stay in one
place the whole time? You know? How is that shift
changed silver time?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It all depends on the place, but specifically Southeast Asia
I think feels extremely safe to me. In general, I've
been to lots of countries in Southeast Asia, and I
also felt very welcome from everywhere. I would say that
Bally sticks out to me in the fact that I
(31:23):
feel the most welcome by the locals in Bali. They're
just so kind and so outgoing and so generous and English.
It's easy to get around with English and Bali. And
why did I stay there the past six months? It
(31:45):
was my fourth time to Bali, and I just I
really do love the people in the culture, but also
the weather. For me, it's like sunny and I'm just
gonna use fahrenheit because that's what I know is the best.
Eighty five and five degrees and sunny every single day
all year round, and there's beaches and volcanoes, and there's jungles,
(32:10):
and there's lots of digital nomads and tours from all
over the world, so you get exposed to people from
all over the world as well, especially if you're young.
You're I'm not, I just turned forty, but if you're
single on dating, you get to date with people that
are from all over the world and meet people that
(32:33):
from all over the world. So that's really nice as well.
It comes down to also the price just being amazing
and more affordable. It's just a great place to be
when it's really cold here at home and gets dark
at four pm.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
If you could travel back in time and talk to
you know, young Ryan working two jobs, working fast food, hustling,
never having left America even over land to Costa Rica,
and never having done a trip in an RV. What's
the thing about your forty year old self that that
kid just wouldn't believe.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
If you told me what my life is like now
and how many countries I've seen, and how I'm doing
work that I love and then I'm making good money
doing it, and I build up several businesses, and I
live on one of the most beautiful islands in the
world six months out of the year. But I have
(33:30):
the choice to live anywhere six months out of the year,
and I'm living on my boat, like everything about how
I'm living now. If you told twenty something year old
Ryan who is working fast food in the warehouse at
night for a decade, would just be like, yeah, that's
completely bullshit. I would give them some advice, like you
(33:52):
need to quit and get out there and go go
get on this sooner.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Do it now, do it faster, don't wait. How do
you find as someone who's back and forth a lot,
how do you find life socializing and making friends both,
you know, maintaining relationships back home, making relationships, do dating,
friendships everything.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, so it's really uh, dating is similar at both places.
You know, I've gotten into like long distance relationships. That's
not ideal, you know. I'm looking for, like to find
that perfect digital nomad who wants to you know, live
in the States on the sale about six months out
(34:36):
of the year and somewhere cool to the other six months,
so that person will show up any minute. But as
far as the like life goes with friends and family,
I think the hybrid nomad thing and me being home
six months is really the perfect case scenario because I
come home and I can reconnect with all those folks.
(34:57):
I plug right back in like I wasn't almost gone, really,
and everyone's even more excited to hang out with me
because it's the summer. Ryan's back in town. We hadn't
seen him six months, And honestly, sometimes it's a little overwhelming,
like because I'm working, and like I'm working a lot
on a project, Like I have a lot of people
(35:19):
that want I want to hang out and want my
time now that I'm back, and like I'm doing my
best to you know, hang out with everybody. And I'm
an introvert too, so it does make it challenging just
having that social battery sometimes, but it is good for
keeping up with friends, family and having it, and that's
(35:41):
something that I look forward to, Like what I've gone
in BALI coming home to be able to hang out
with the people that I haven't seen for so long.
So I think it works out really well in that regard.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Well, So I often do the what's the advice you
would get for someone who's on the fence and hasn't
left yet, But I kind of feel like we've covered
that in some ways, so Instead, I'm going to say,
what's your advice for someone who wants a podcast and
wants to start their own podcast in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Well, with someone starting, I would say, definitely do video
and start. Make sure it's on YouTube, because the statistics
say that's where most people are finding your podcast, and
being found is like the biggest thing for your podcast
to grow. It's just people knowing that you exist, right
(36:38):
And YouTube, I think is the second largest search engine
in the world besides Google, so people are searching there
for it. I'm I didn't start there. Mine's on all
the audio platforms first, and we're slowly migrating there. So
I would say, if you're thinking about it, that's the
(37:00):
first step. Put it on YouTube. But make sure that
whatever you're you're talking about, or whatever your goal is,
it should maybe not to be make money right away
because that's a hard thing to do with podcasts, but
just create value for people in some way.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
That's the exact same thing I say about YouTube, having
come in the opposite direction where I started as a
YouTuber or a video maker and then transitioned into conversational
podcasting on that video platform. The biggest thing forget the camera,
forget the lights, the tech, the editing. That stuff may
or may not come later. The number one thing do
(37:44):
you know who your audience is and are you saying
Are you saying something valuable to them? Are you just
giving some something valuable, which if you're a comedian it
could just be making them laugh, but whatever it is,
are you are you delivering that value to them in
their day? What's the question? I didn't ask? What's one
thing when you were coming on you know, you're gonna
come on the cost of living a broad pod tonight
and you thought, oh, I'm sure we're going to talk
(38:05):
about this, or I'm sure Evan will ask me this,
and I didn't do it? Or what's a question? You know?
What's the burning thing that you didn't get to say
that you want to say?
Speaker 2 (38:16):
I would just tell people that if you if you're
really interested, either moving abroad or just being a digital nomad,
get out there and try it. Do a test runt.
You don't have to commit one hundred percent sell your
house and divorce your wife and get rid of your
pets and all this stuff just to make it happen.
(38:39):
You can totally do it all, like with a family
of five can be move abroad and be digital nomads.
You can travel with pets, you can figure out the
housing situation, all these things that are going through your
mind that like what do I need to do? It's
all there's an answer for everything. And in the meantime,
(39:02):
like just get out there and see some places and
fall in love with the place and then and then
make their plan for your escape.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
That's beautiful advice. Man. Thank you so much for coming
on the Cost of Living Abroad. Ryan. Tell everyone listening
and watching where they can find you and how they
can get in touch with you.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Sure so, I'm the Digital Nomad Coach on Instagram, Facebook
and YouTube, and you can download my free guide at
thedigital Nomadcoach dot com and check out the podcast Digital
Nomad Nation.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I'm Evan A and thanks for listening to the Cost
of Living a broad Pod. For full interviews, find us
on YouTube at cost of Living a broad Pod. Before
we wrap up, I just wanted to let you know
that if you're struggling with the cost of living crisis
back at home and looking for a sustainable and affordable
way to relocate your life abroad, check out our resources,
(39:57):
courses and community at Cost of Living and Abroad dot
Com thanks so much. New episodes air Sunday night in Bangkok.
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