Carlo; 72 and counting!

Florence; Same! Carlo was one ahead of me for a few years but I caught up. 🙂

Carlo; For me, overall, it’s got to be Thailand. The people, the food, the weather, the landscape, the cost of living, the comfort, super fast Wi-Fi…it’s got it all.

Florence; I agree. Many countries have stood out over others but, taking all into account, Thailand has so much to offer people like us who are looking for a comfortable base to settle in for a few months.

That said; we’ve had so many great experiences in other countries too so it’s hard to just choose one! Slovenia, Bolivia, and Cuba all stand out as places I’d love to return to.

Carlo; I always had an interest in technology and loved computers but I had no skills in terms of graphic design or anything that I thought could be turned into a money making gig.

Florence; Em, no, I didn’t even own a laptop!

We toyed with the idea of using words like ‘nomads’ and ‘wanderlust’ when choosing a name but we wanted something that wouldn’t box us into the travel niche. We wanted something that could grow with us and still be relevant even if we decided to stop travelling.

We felt that ‘Next Stop – Who Knows?’ can be applied to travel, business or life in general. It’s about focusing on that next stop – whatever that might be – and the journey that it takes to get there.

Carlo; Pristina in Kosovo. Granted, we only stayed one night but the vibe we got in that short time definitely wasn’t a good one.

Florence; Delhi. In our experience, it was just as crazy as we’re led to believe. I just felt really unsafe there.

Florence; I’m not that adventurous when it comes to food so the craziest thing I’ve eaten is (part of) a frog’s leg in Chinatown, Bangkok.

Never again!

Carlo; I used to be one of those people who’d try anything but that all changed after a bout of sickness from eating a crow on the way home from a night out with friends in Thailand!

Scorpions, maggots and grasshoppers are just some of the other local delicacies I’ve sampled on my travels.

The thought of being tied down didn’t sit well with us from early on in our relationship.

We never wanted the stress of a big mortgage where we’d be slaves to paying money to a bank for 20, 30 or even 40 years just so we could have a house that would anchor us down and be more of a burden than anything else.

Regarding getting a ‘real job’, we both feel that life isn’t for existing in a world where we have to work like slaves and sacrifice our time to make someone else’s dreams come true.

We wanted to put the work in and create a business that would allow us to directly benefit from our efforts. We figured that even if we have to put in 50+ hour weeks working on our laptops to make it work, we’d reap 100% of the rewards for doing so.

And although society had it all mapped out for us in terms of our working lives, we didn’t want to wait until we were 60+ and retired to climb mountains, swim in the sea, sleep in deserts, and hike for hours on end to see waterfalls.

We wanted to travel and do the things that we wanted to do when we’re fit and healthy to do them.

TIME is the PRECIOUS and it is LIMITED so we’re just trying to make the most of it in the way that feels right for us.

I guess you could say that we’re very happy to live an alternative lifestyle than what’s considered the norm by society for people our age.

Carlo; Mine is spending 6 weeks in Brazil, the spiritual home of football, for the World Cup in 2014.

We got to watch all of the games with a local family and got to go to a game in the Maracana. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Florence; Spending 10 days in Cuba is definitely one of my travel highlights.

It was such an amazing place for lots of different reasons and I’m so glad we got to experience it in its raw state.

Right now we’ve got 3 main sources of income. They are;

Link Building & Outreach

Lead Generation & Local SEO

Freelance Writing

Yes, but very little in comparison to other bloggers who make most of their income through affiliate partnerships and sponsored content.

Yes, we think anyone can do it but it does take determination and a certain mindset to make it work.

The road to success is always under construction so you need to be able to adapt and maintain a positive attitude through the rough patches.

So many people are selling the ‘digital nomad’ dream of working for 2 hours from a hammock at a beach in Bali but the reality of making this lifestyle work isn’t as glamorous or as easy as that.

It’s hard fricking work and as long as you set yourself some real expectations and be stubborn enough to keep on going, you’ll get there. 

The fact that we had no special qualifications or training proves that neither is a requirement to make shit happen. 

Just take action!

Start a travel blog, learn everything there is to know about the industry, get active in the community, network, make friends, and just do everything you can to make it work.

Knowledge is power so educate yourself by investing in courses and membership communities such as Location Rebel that will broaden your horizons and connect you with like-minded people.

There will be bumps along the way so be relentless. Stay positive. Use your time wisely. Keep yourself accountable.

And ALWAYS set bigger goals when you’ve hit those benchmarks that you set for yourself.

Not having a guaranteed cheque at the end of every month is probably the most off-putting thing about running your own business whilst travelling.

It’s this lack of certainty that puts so many people off taking that first leap but we see it as a challenge rather than a hindrance.

Needing Wi-Fi everywhere we go is another obvious struggle as you can see from Carlo’s face below!

These are questions we get all of the time! And the answer is we don’t know.

We do know we don’t want to hop from country to country indefinitely but travel will always be a big part of our lives. 

We want to settle somewhere and have a base that we can call home. From there, we hope to do shorter trips for a month or two at a time. 

Where we’ll settle we have no idea at all. We both like the idea of escaping winter by spending 6 months of the year in somewhere like Spain and spending the other 6 months travelling between Ireland and other countries that we’d like to see.  

Who knows!? For now, we’re just enjoying life and our plan is to work harder, travel more, have new experiences, and spend as much time as possible with our families and friends.

The blog, Next Stop Who Knows, will always be our virtual home and we hope that it will be a part of our lives for a long time to come.

Workwise, we won’t be returning to a 9-5 anytime soon unless we’re absolutely forced to!

We feel like we’ve got the best job in the world as we get to work anywhere we like, we’re not on anyone else’s watch, each day brings a new learning experience, and the lifestyle that we’ve been able to create over the past 5.5 years is, for us, the best reward in the world.