Reverse Engineering the Remote Year

Travelling the world is our ultimate goal, not location independence. Although it’s been a whirlwind month having achieved a job that I can do from anywhere, I started looking into which were the most logical roads to get us there, and I stumbled upon remoteyear.com.

It sounded exciting: pay them $24k for the flights, for housing, for a coworking space & for events. Starting January, their itinerary looked like this:

January: Santiago, Chile
February: Lima, Peru
March: Medellin, Columbia
April: Mexico City, Mexico
May: Hanoi, Vietnam
June: Chiang Mai, Thailand
July: Kyoto, Japan
August: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
September: Split, Croatia
October: Lisbon, Portugal
November: Valencia, Spain
December: Cape Town, South Africa

That lineup was super-exciting. But, there were some concerns. Primary among them, although I didn’t dig into a couples discount, I couldn’t imagine it would be significant enough to not take this up to nearly half of my yearly income.

Secondly, I learned through reviews that you travel with a large group of the same participants in the program for the whole year, and that occasionally people were made to feel uncomfortable with the affluence and entitlement of some in their group.

Lastly, was one month per country enough, and if I had more flexibility, would I change the lineup? The answer was yes. So, I took their lineup, considered doubling the time spent at each and did some basic research:

1. Santiago, Chile (wework ~$240/month, Airbnb ~$1000/month, 2 flights $1120)
2. Lima, Peru (wework ~$325/month, Airbnb ~$500/month, 2 flights $580)
3. Medellin, Columbia (wework $200/month, Airbnb ~$1000/month, 2 flights $406)
4. Mexico City, Mexico (wework $267/month, Airbnb ~$1300/month, 2 flights $402)
5. Hanoi, Vietnam (wework N/A, Airbnb $600/month, 2 flights $1416)
6. Chiang Mai, Thailand (wework N/A, Airbnb $800/month 2 flights $120)
7. Kyoto, Japan (wework N/A,  Airbnb $1000/month, 2 flights $245)
8. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (wework $263/month, Airbnb $800, 2 flights $200)
9. Split, Croatia (wework: N/A, AirBnB $700, 2 flights $1200)
10. Lisbon, Portugal (wework: N/A Airbnb $1200, 2 flights $410)
11. Valencia, Spain (wework: N/A Airbnb $1200, 2 flights $90)
12. Cape Town, South Africa (wework: $220 Airbnb $1100, 2 flights $1030)
13. To US 2 flights $1850

This lineup came to about $30,469 for flights and lodging for 2 of us. That’s about $4,069 more than we currently pay for rent @ $1,100/month. Knowing there’s more to it than that – transportation, insurance, immunization, food, workspace – we also knew it was immediately within our reach.

We decided to tweak this, with different destinations. Our guidelines were mostly to do with weather and a date with destiny with my brothers in Munich for Oktoberfest 2020. And here’s what we came up with:

1. Melbourne, Australia Jan/Feb/Mar 2020 (63-80°F, $1800 flight, $1300/month Airbnb)
2. Da Nang, Vietnam Mar/Apr 2020 (68-80°F, $1200 flight, $600/month Airbnb)
3. Kyoto, Japan Apr/May 2020 (62-89°F, $625 flight, $1000/month Airbnb)
4. Tbilisi, Georgia May/Jun/Jul 2020 (59-88°F, $1820 flight, $500/month Airbnb)
5. Lisbon, Portugal Aug/Sep 2020 (63-83°F, $540 flight, $1200/month Airbnb)
6. Portugal > Annecy, France > Colmar, France > Strasbourg, France > Prague > Munich
7. Marrakesh, Morocco? Oct 2020 (50-85°F, $240 flight, $800/month Airbnb) Unsafe for women, crime?
8. Cape Town Oct/Nov/Dec 2020 (60-76°F, $1480 flight, $1100/month Airbnb)
9. Egypt/Jordan? Jan 2021 Unsafe for women, crime?
10. Antalya, Turkey Jan/Feb/Mar 2021 (41-65°F, $1060 flight, $800/month Airbnb)
11. Athens, Greece Apr 2021 (47-70°F, Flight $325, $1100/month Airbnb)
12. Bari, Italy Apr/May/Jun 2021 (50-80°F, flight $120 to Rome, $1000/month Airbnb)
13. Medellin, Columbia Jul/Aug 2021 (62-78°F, flight $1240, $1000/month Airbnb)
14. Lima, Peru Aug/Sep 2021 (59-69°F, Flight $550, $500/month Airbnb)
15. Santiago, Chile Oct/Nov 2021 (53-85°F, flight $650, $1000/month Airbnb)
16. Buenos Aires, Argentina Nov/Dec/Jan 2021 (64-80°F, Flight $350, $800/month Airbnb)
17. Mexico City, Mexico Jan/Feb 2022 (43-75°F, flight $1650, $1300/month Airbnb)
18. US Flight $570

This isn’t fully ferreted out yet. I haven’t finished looking into Visa requirements/durations and safety (Morocco/Egypt) and internet speeds. But cumulatively, this is about $10,000 over my rent over the next 2 years. $417/month for the lifestyle we want.

November 10^th, 2019 we hit the road. January 3^rd, 2020 the world becomes our home and we fly to Melbourne. Ready… fire… aim. We picked a road and hope to see you on it. Peaces.

Some tips:

• Find somebody who does it well and steal the the best part of their ideas.
• Always look at reviews. They-do-it-for-you year-abroad sounds great if you want to isolate yourself in the comfort of people you know instead of getting to know the people you came to meet.
• While it’s important to make haste and not let doubt kill your dream, it’s equally important to think things through and prepare, prepare, prepare. Budget is #1.
• I’ll repeat an earlier tip: Decide what you want and put it out there – people will help you, even through criticism, if you can learn to mine the gold from the garbage.