Club Freedom® presents Freedom Lifestyle: Making Money on the Move, with Real Estate Business Owner and Family Man, Roy Meyer & Freedom Lifestyle Entrepreneur Clinton Young. Follow Roy on social media for business tips, family tips, and more in the show notes below!
Be sure to join Clinton & Mayumi on their journey to a lifestyle filled with freedom, fun, and adventure by following them on Instagram @ClubFreedomLive. Also join their Facebook group for a more in depth look into their journey at www.ClubFreedom.org.
“Freedom Lifestyle: Making Money on the Move – Ep 2 – Run a Remote Business While Traveling the World with your Spouse and Kids, with Roy Meyer & Clinton Young
by Clinton Young – Freedom Lifestyle Entrepreneur
Roy Meyer: Thanks for having me Clinton, and I am actually coming to you live from Senggigi, which is in Lombok which is in southern Indonesia. So that’s where we’re at right now.
Clinton Young: Nice. Well, welcome to the show. It’s so great to have you on today. So you’re staying right now at a Marriott – I’m going to just touch on that real quick, because we were just chatting about that before the show. I know that that’s probably a big question for a lot of folks out there who want to live this sort of freedom lifestyle. Who wants to live and work from all around the world, and they’re wondering, “could I actually stay at a Marriott, or do I need to be like bawling, like Mr. Roy Meyer To be able to afford that?”
I’m just playing around here, but I would imagine that‘s a more expensive option than an Airbnb, for example. So maybe you could just talk to us a little bit about that. I know you have a lot of experience with Marriott
Roy Meyer: Yeah, you know, this is something we actually just kind of fell into when we took off on this journey. You know, we never expected to be spending so much time in Marriott, and we have spent almost three years of full time travel. Now we’ve spent about 850 nights in a Marriott. So that was not the plan.
But what happened when we were in the Philippines at a brand new Marriott that opened up and at that point we hadn’t been staying at a Marriott, so we really needed a good shower and a good bed. We fell in love with the general manager there and we ended up spending four and a half months at that Marriott and what happened is we fell into the rewards program. The bonvoy program which we didn’t really know anything about. We learned about what you can do with points and all the other avenues that you can do by working the reward system.
Roy Meyer: And so we went from the bottom level to the top tier, you know, in a matter of a few months. The reason we stay at the Marriotts now for a couple of reasons. We do Airbnbs as well, but mainly it’s the Marriotts. For one, they have such a great reward system meaning like where we’re at right now in Senggigi, we have a phenomenal rate. And honestly, I don’t know that we could get a better rate at Airbnb. We get some unbelievable upgrades. So here we got a standard room, and they upgraded us from a standard room to a presidential suite of about 1400 square feet, three baths, two bedrooms and Huge deck right off the ocean and the pool. So we get a lot of upgrades, but the bigger part, the reason we do it now is we meet the most incredible people. We have met so many incredible people, meaning staff-wise where they’ve been able to introduce us to a little bit more the culture, people, opportunities, and experiences. If we were just doing an Airbnb, we probably wouldn’t get that same knowledge or feedback. Not to mention, we’ve met some incredible people traveling just from a business perspective. Now, there’re so many opportunities. What would I recommend Marriott? Absolutely. I mean, because we love it. And there’s a reason we do it. And also, by the way, they always have good Internet, but there are so many other options. Whether you’re a family, whether you’re a single traveler even here in Senggigi, you could find an incredible place to stay for as little as $10 – $15 a night. So the opportunities out there are endless from whatever it is your comfort level, whatever it is you’re looking for. Now a lot of people have a stigma with the Marriott that it’s super expensive. Now we’re in the COVID times right now, and this is incredibly cheap. We have an entire resort right now to ourself and I mean that literally. You know, I don’t know how many rooms are here, but it’s kind of like having your own Rockefeller home.
Clinton Young: Or so. So okay, so I’m going to stop you there because you’re putting out so many cool little gems and jump off points for additional conversations. I Also promised the listeners, I want to back it up and just introduce who you are. I was really fascinated that you’re staying in a Marriott.
This is Roy Meyer. He’s been traveling with his family, his wife and two kids for now over 1000 days, right? The last time I heard it’s somewhere close to 1000 days in a row.
Roy Meyer: Yeah, we’re over 1000, almost three years full time.
Clinton Young: Almost three years full time folks. I think you know how very cool of a lifestyle you live. I know that it’s not all sugar plums and cherry blossoms, I’m sure. Right? There’s definitely the dark side, which maybe we’ll talk a little bit about today, some of the challenges, and maybe there’s not, maybe I’m making that up, but it’s really fascinating that it’s over 1000 days on the road. Most people don’t get to travel 1000 days in their lifetime If you add up all the vacations and think about it. And I know that you are super grateful and humble and and love and so appreciative that you’ve created this lifestyle for yourself and your family, but I just want to acknowledge you for doing just that for literally creating this lifestyle for you and your family. What an amazing learning experience for all of you.
So before I give you a chance to really talk more about that. I want to properly introduce you. I don’t actually have a full bio for you, but I know that you are a phenomenal entrepreneur and businessman. We met a few years back at a mutual friend’s networking event. As you know, we shared the same stage and you get on a lot of stages around the world, as do I, and I just have a ton of respect for you and for your businesses that you’ve run. Obviously you can share whatever you’d like to about them today. And I’m just really fascinated that you’ve been able to create this kind of lifestyle. So today, we’re going to talk about that journey; we’re going to talk about the ups, the downs, the mindset, and the faith that it takes to actually make the choice in the first place.
Then the very unique experience that you’re actually having right now in the time of COVID That you’ve shared with a very unique time to travel and is it possible for those listeners out there to actually do it right now. There’s obvious restrictions, we’ll talk a little bit about that as well. So, welcome to the show.
Again, Roy. I’m so blessed to have this conversation with you. Let’s jump in. Is there anything you wanted to share based on what I just said, or anything else to introduce yourself? Why don’t we start there? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Roy Meyer: I just want to say that’s great to be here. You know, Clinton, I’m really excited to be on the show and share whatever I can. I’d like to really just share what is really possible, because you know, even though we have some hesitations up front about can we really do this. And, you know, having gone through this journey now for almost three years, it is addicting. The more you do it, the more you want to do it, the more you see, the more you realize how much you haven’t seen. So I’m excited to share, from all the perspectives of the good, the bad, of what we’ve gone through as a family.
We have a 12 and 14 year old right now as well, and a lot of people think you can’t travel with kids. So we can share a little bit about that as well. For anybody considering it, it is an amazing lifestyle. It’s an amazing opportunity; the world is an amazing place. Just the vision that opens up for you as you get out and expand your world, I’m really excited to share today.
Clinton Young: Awesome will feel free to direct and guide wherever you’d like this conversation to go. I have a series of about 50 questions. We’re not gonna be able to get through all of them today. I’m really fascinated with this, as you know, my wife and I travel a lot, and I’m a speaker so I speak a lot around the world. We want to rent out our house next year, and we’re going to go for it. We’re going to do it in the US first and then we’re going to go abroad after that. So we’re learning from the master today.
Take us back to when you first started. I have a few questions around when you first got started, when you first had the idea. First of all, whose idea was it? Was it your idea, your wife’s idea, your children’s idea, whose idea was if you remember?
Roy Meyer: It was my idea. You know, going to a lot of events, there are a couple people I follow, and they would always start off on the big screen with all of their world destinations and I used to always sit there and dream of how I could never do that. How I would love to do that. So it was really my idea, and I came to my wife with it. I came to her one day and just said, out of the blue, “By the way, what would you think if we just sold everything we own and just travel the world full time.?
Clinton Young: What did she say? What was her response?
Roy Meyer: She looked at me, she’s like, “Can we leave tomorrow?” I wasn’t surprised, but I was a little surprised because it really had been stirring in me for a little while. So we just decided to go for it. So it was my idea. I brought it up to her and she was on board from the very second that I brought it up.
Clinton Young: That’s amazing. Okay, so this was about three years ago, a little over three. What were you doing at the time? I’m assuming you were an entrepreneur and had businesses. Give us a broad level overview of what kind of business you were in at the time, and let’s start getting into the conversation of what you had to do to prepare yourself to actually make that choice.
Roy Meyer: Sure. So I have a real estate business in Southern California.That was doing well and is still doing well. It was successful, but, if you really look at true success when you’re working 80 hours a week. That’s really not success, in my eyes, no matter what kind of money you’re making. So, I was just really getting tired of the grind. I also have a coaching program – online group coaching, mastermind program – that was doing pretty well as well. I tell you, we, especially in Southern California, get so wrapped up in the rush of things. You get so wrapped up in the business of things, you get so wrapped up in the keeping up with things. You end up having these blinders on. Or at least, we did, and the world is just flying by you, and sometimes we don’t even realize it.
I kind of took a look at what we were doing and just said, wow, there’s gotta be more to life than paying bills, getting a few trips in, and whathavenot. So, this fire started to stir in me to change the perspective of what we were doing with our life. We also had kids later in life. We went from being told that we couldn’t have children to having children later in life. And, you know, we didn’t want to wait until we were retirement age, or until they were out of high school to really experience life as well.
So we actually had a family meeting. This is a family decision, and we all agreed on the decision to move forward. We knew that we could come up with many more reasons not to do this than to do it. We are all always going to have those voices in your head, saying, “Okay, well, you don’t have enough money, you don’t have this setup or what about this.” Those played over and over and over again, but we were so set to do this, Clinton. What we did is, so we would not back out on this journey we told everybody we knew family, friends, bystanders on the street that we were going to do this journey. So there was no way we could back out. We would have to really do this just to save face. We had to do this. So that was how we actually made the commitment, It was by just really telling everybody that we’re going to do this. Actually it was funny, I think it was in February of 2017, when we talked about initially doing it. Then we were like, “okay well that’s nine months.” So we started prepping and telling people, but then we got to about June/July and truly asked ourselves, are we really doing this?
Then in August, again are we still really doing this? By then, we started having garage sales. We sold everything we owned and that helped our commitment to actually make it happen.
Clinton Young: What was the timeline from when you said you wanted to do it, and when you set the date? How long did it take before you took off?
Roy Meyer: So that would be about eight months.
Clinton Young: Wow. Okay. You had your real estate business and you had your coaching mastermind for the real estate industry.
Roy Meyer: And so, but, you know, so I wanted to give myself enough time to really prepare and I said, “Can I do this? How do I need to structure things? Can I do this remotely with my business? Can I leave a friend with it?” It was a little bit scary because I did have to give up my biggest paying client to do this.
That was probably close to half of our income. So we had to make a decision. Can I make that income up? Is this something we can do? We knew that our cost of living would go way down, but that was a scary, scary point, especially when you have kids to give up half of your income to go on this this global journey so
Clinton Young: Were the kids on board right away?
Roy Meyer: My son was on board immediately. My daughter and she had a lot of friends, so she was a little bit hesitant, and it was kind of hard.
Clinton Young: She was 8, and he was 11?
Roy Meyer: My son was 11 and she was 8 at the time.
Clinton Young: Got it.
Roy Meyer: I’ll tell you, I think we’ve ruined him, but I can’t imagine now they are ever going to want to have a regular job.
Clinton Young: You’re teaching them some of the best lessons on the planet.
Every time I talk to a young person, I tell them about my best experiences as a young man. When I was in grad school, I went and lived in Brazil, I lived in Singapore, I traveled all through Southeast Asia. I actually was by myself and there’s something to be said about single travel as well, by the way, but there’s a lot you can learn. I learned so much about myself, about the world, and about culture. That is so powerful. So, you’re giving them a massive gift.
I know you and I spoke privately about your son becoming an entrepreneur, digital nomad and that’s super exciting. So cool.
Roy Meyer: Just on top of that, Clinton, what I was really excited about for our kids is that they’re at such an impressionable age, and there is so much influence from the media, news, peer pressure, whatever the case might be. We wanted them to be able to experience the world and form their own opinions firsthand while meeting different people, different cultures. We wanted this for them before being exposed to different things before they really got all of the outside noise coming to them. That’s really been fascinating from a learning perspective.
One time within eight days they were experiencing the Colosseum in Rome, and a couple days later were walking around the pyramids in Egypt. So, from a learning perspective, to actually be seeing that, learning it, feeling and touching it, was really incredible for them. In addition, there are also all the friends they’ve made from different people and cultures. It has really been a lot of fun to watch their growth as well.
Clinton Young: Yeah, I’ve been following you, from the very beginning. I literally know the pictures you’re talking about. I know exactly the stories you’re talking about – somebody following you from the very beginning. Some of the things I’ve really enjoyed, and you referenced this earlier with staying at the Marriott, you’ve been able to build such amazing relationships with people. They really seem like meaningful relationships and they care about you like part of the family. I see your son and daughter in the back with a chef learning how to be a chef. Are you kidding me? They’re just these epic experiences that you just can’t buy. They’re once in a lifetime. So, kudos to you again on that, it’s super cool.
Roy Meyer: Exactly right on that! We just checked in here a couple days ago and one of the staff here is an excellent piano player. We’re gonna be here for probably a couple months, and so my son is already taking piano lessons from the staff member here. There are lots of additional friends that we’ve made and things we get to do.
Clinton Young: Very cool. Now I want to talk about some of the sexy things about the places you’ve been and some of the fun stories, and maybe get into some tips for people when they’re traveling.
Before we get there, I talk a lot about faith. I don’t necessarily mean religious faith or spiritual faith. I mean, just sort of a knowingness and a trust in yourself and in whatever your higher power is that guides you. Whatever your guiding source is. There had to have been some level level of faith and knowing that you’re doing the right thing. I talked a lot about this, Roy, about where the magic in our lives, where we really come alive, and where amazing things happen, is at the intersection between knowingness you’re doing the right thing and the unknowingness of how you’re actually going to pull it off. About how it actually is going to turn out. That magical sort of intersection between that knowingness and that faith that you’re going in the right direction. And total unknowingness and uncertainty of how’s this going to turn out. That’s where the magic happens.
Clinton Young: So I want to talk a little bit about your experience with whatever you might call it, that feeling of knowing that you’re doing the right thing and you’re going for it. What did you experience after being out on the road with a lot of uncertainty. In the space of just traveling – where you go next, where you live, how’s your business going to work. So talk to us a little bit about that concept of faith and what you’ve experienced on your journey. What’s opened up for you and your family perhaps?
Roy Meyer: Yeah, you know, faith, and also belief, is a big part of it. You know, we really had to have the faith that we could do this, that I was going to be able to replace some of that income. The faith that our kids were going to be okay. Especially when you have half of your friends and half your family saying, gosh, I wish we could do that. The other half are saying, “You’re crazy. What are you running away from, you’re ruining your kid’s life.” So we’ve lost some friends, we’ve lost some close relationships with family as well, just because they don’t agree or understand what we’re doing. So faith does play a big part of it, and also the belief in yourself. For me, this is something we really wanted to do. We finally just said, “You know what, what’s the worst that happens, the worst that happens is it doesn’t work. We come back, we buy more stuff, and we get back into the rat race where we were before.”
Roy Meyer: What’s the worst that’s going to happen? You know, it doesn’t work out. So for me, the fear of not going after my dreams was much greater than not going after this, and always having a regret that we didn’t give it a try. That was something I couldn’t live with and we could live with. That you don’t chase your dreams or you don’t go after them, or you’re too fearful or you don’t know everything. So you don’t go after those. What I kind of thrive on is being put in a situation where I have to perform, and just the belief in myself. “Okay, I’m going to make it happen. What am I capable of?” I’m always pushing myself. This is one of those things where I’m going to give up half my income. Is that going to elevate me to a new level? Is that going to push me beyond what I know I can do now. It certainly has, Clinton. We’ve had this discussion as well, which makes me excited for you.
I had one of my coaches and dear friends tell me why you know when you do this, Roy, you are going to have so many opportunities that are going to open up to you. You can’t even fathom or understand that right now. You are going to have so many incredible new relationships that are going to open up and that you can understand her can’t fathom right now. That has absolutely played out. Not only have we replaced that income, but even more so, the relationships we’ve built, the opportunities we’ve had now have been through the roof.
Roy Meyer: Faith played a really big part of that, especially when you have your own internal noise telling you that you can’t and questioning what you’re doing. Even more so when half of your friends and half your family are adding to that noise. You really have to have a stronger faith to go forward with that. Like I said for me, it was more the belief in myself. I didn’t want to live life with any regrets. It goes by extremely fast and before you know it, you’re looking back, and I just didn’t want to live with regrets.
Clinton Young: So it sounds like the fear of the regret of not doing it, had you not done it, was much greater than the fear of any potential failure or not being able to do it. You could always come home. I love that. That’s wonderful.
So tell us a little bit about this faith to go. You had this belief in yourself and you were really driven to create this opportunity for yourself and your family. Give us an example of something seemingly miraculous that showed up along the way which you had no idea would happen or was even possible. Something that you weren’t expecting, and what else has opened up for you from that.
Roy Meyer: One of them would be the Marriott. We never expected to be spending 1000 nights at the Marriott. That was definitely unexpected.
Another example was when we were in Panama. We had a great time in Panama, and out of the blue, one day, we’re walking along the waterfront, and we ended up meeting some people from the Keller Williams office. We started talking and having a great time, and I love marketing, I love video and all that kind of stuff. The next day I was giving a presentation in their office, and now they’re beginning to hire me to do some consulting and marketing for them as well. So there are lots of different opportunities that have happened business-wise.
For our kids, just watching their growth, but for me, it’s been business-wise. We have had so many doors open. And so many people who are intrigued about what we’re doing. We’ve had so many more people now asking, “How do you do that and is that possible?” We love sharing with them that it absolutely is.
Roy Meyer: For our kids the opportunities and the world that this has opened up for them. They have friends literally all over the world. There are probably very few places in the world that they don’t have connections they can go to tomorrow. They’re not old enough to travel on their own right now, but they could go tomorrow and be able to be comfortable and safe and experience the world. Very few kids have had the chance to do that. I’m not sure if that really answered the question.
Clinton Young: No, it absolutely did, and let’s talk a little bit about some of the places that you’ve been. I don’t even know if you can remember all of them! But maybe you can. What are some of your highlight locations that you’ve really enjoyed and that your family’s really enjoyed?
Roy Meyer: When we took off on this journey, Clinton, it’s interesting because all you really think about is how you can’t wait to see this – I can’t wait to go there – I can’t wait to do this.
Picking a favorite country is almost like picking a favorite child at this point. One of the downsides about doing what we’re doing, if you can call it a downside, is you don’t have a lot of reflective time. Meaning you’re always seeing new places experiencing new things. Normally you go on a vacation you come back and you reflect on how great time it was, and you play the photos back and kind of relive that moment. For us, we’re always moving forward. We don’t really think back about what we just did last month, because there’s always this new adventure in front of us.
So, we’ve decided that from now on that every Friday is going to be family photo and video night where we replay some of the things that we’ve done over this journey and remember and appreciate, because that has been one downside. When we do look back, it’s amazing what we’ve seen and done. In regards to favorite places, when we took off on this journey it was like, wow! We’re going to see this amazing world which we have, but it really honestly has been the people we’ve met along the way. The people make the places. There’re so many beautiful places around the world, but it’s really the people. We “slow travel.” I know a lot of people travel in different ways that work for them. What we’d like to do is we like to go for 30 to 90 days in Bali. We might end up being here in Indonesia for a year by the time COVID is over, but we like to slow travel. The reason we like to slow travel is we like to be able to really experience the culture – really get to know the people and really make good, solid relationships. You can’t do that if you’re just going somewhere for a day or two, or a week.
Roy Meyer: So for us, what’s really important is not so much the places, but the people and the connections we’ve made on our trip now.
I will share one of the surprise places that we went to that we absolutely loved and we’ve loved, and we’ve loved all of them. We don’t plan very far ahead. We never know what country we’re going to go to. We’ve even done the “spin the bottle” on the table a couple of times, like, “All right, let’s just see where it lands on the map, and let’s go there.”
Clinton Young: That was my next question to tell us how you choose, so you spin the bottle.
Roy Meyer: We were in Madrid at the time, and we’re thinking about where we’re going to go from Madrid. We had just hit Panama prior to that. So I was doing a little research on the internet. I found this place called Portaventura. I looked at these amazing prices, amazing lodging, amazing rates, and it was off the coast of Africa by Morocco. It’s still a Spanish island. So, I showed it to my wife and she said, “What do you think about Portaventura?” She’s responded, “What’s a Portaventura?” It’s part of the Canary Islands. So we went there. We were going to go just for a month, but we ended up spending two months, and it was the most incredible, beautiful, fun experience that we didn’t see coming.
It’s those little hidden gems that sometimes you don’t think about going that are the most fun
In regards to how we determine where we’re going to go. It depends on a few things.What’s the cost, obviously, we’re traveling with four people. So, what are the costs of flights to get there? What is the cost of the lodging? Is it low season or high season? Is it going to be high tourist time? Do we have to get a visa, or can we just go there on a passport? I’d say probably 60% have a passport only so we can stay 30 days. Can we stay 90 days? Can you extend a visa, or do you have to leave?
So there’s a lot of things that go into our thinking when we get ready to go to another country.
Roy Meyer: For instance, when we were in Jamaica, we were trying to figure out where we’re going to go next, and my kids happened to be studying about the Panama Canal. We thought well, it’s just a flight away, so we ended up in Panama. It happened to be the same time as the Mardi Gras. Then when we were in Panama, we were trying to figure out where to go next. We saw these really great deals to Madrid for like $150. We thought, Wow! $150 flights to Madrid. Let’s go to Madrid. Then when we were in Madrid, you know, and then I found Portaventura. From there, we’d always wanted to go to Egypt, so we shot down to Egypt.
Sometimes we’ll take turns on our bucket list of things or places we want to go. So there’s no rhyme or reason for the most part. Right now we’re in Southeast Asia. We’d like to hit this area for the most part, and then probably come back and visit family for a month in the US next year. Maybe we’ll go on a different track like up to Europe if that opens up from COVID.
It’s in regard to moving forward for us, it’s really about cost, is a high season, is low season, is it visa or passport? How long can we stay? So many questions.
Clinton Young: Oh my goodness. So many questions. That’s great. So one thing I got out of what you just said was, you need to be flexible, and to follow your intuition. If you see something that’s a good deal, and you’ve always wanted to go, why not go there if it makes sense. So be flexible. You don’t really have a hard and fast rule, and I would imagine that provides a little more comfortability and fun to the whole experience to just kind of be in the moment and go where you feel called.
Roy Meyer: Yep, absolutely. Sometimes it will pertain to business like I do have several international clients and we may have to go to India or the Philippines or some of those areas, and I may have to do a little bit of work there. Generally though, it’s a group decision and what looks like fun. We might as well keep this exciting and a learning experience for the kids as well.
Clinton Young: Do you speak any other languages, besides English, you or anyone in the family?
Roy Meyer: You know, I wish I did. I took German all the way through college, then moving to Nebraska, and then to Southern California didn’t really serve me too well. However, my wife is a sign language interpreter, which has served us well on various occasions as we traveled.
My son and daughter are amazing learners and so they’re in charge of learning a new language when we’re in a different country. So my son can speak like a Ilonggo in the Philippines. He’s learning some of the language here in Bali as well. They also are doing Duolingo. Every day they are doing their language studies on Duolingo. So I think my son just hit his 500th day on Spanish, they’re all doing Spanish on Duolingo. So to answer your question, unfortunately, I don’t, but they absolutely do.
Clinton Young: So Duolingo is an app, I would imagine.
Roy Meyer: It is, yeah.
Clinton Young: I’m gonna write that down. Sure, the listeners will be writing that down as well as a nice little tip.
So, you talked about coming back to visit family. I’m curious what it’s been like, I know everybody’s families are different. I have my nuclear families in Massachusetts, and I live in San Diego. So I already only see them twice a year, when there’s no COVID. It’s important, family is one of my top values and it is important. So I’m just curious, you seem like quite the family guy. I don’t know how extensive your extended family is, but how often do you come back and what is it like? Is it challenging, especially with some of the folks that you said that you connect with that are in your family and outside the family who don’t really believe in what you’re doing? How often do you come back to see family, and what is that like?
Roy Meyer: That is a tough part, you know, being gone. That’s one of those sacrifices that you have to weigh as you do this. In three years, we’ve only been back one time. In a few more months, it will be two years since we’ve actually been back.
It was a December of the second year we were on the road, my mom became ill. So we were in Malaysia and all settled in there. We got the call that we had to go back. So we ended up going back for about five or six weeks. So, we’ve only been back one time.
Unfortunately, or I should say, fortunately my family is in the Midwest. I lived near you, in San Diego, in Temecula, and so we only have the opportunity to go back once or twice before travelling. So, we already were doing a lot of virtual Zoom calls and Skype calls. My wife’s family is in Southern California. When we do go back, it’s a little bit of a challenge because you have multiple states, and everybody’s gonna want to see you and we want to see everybody as well. Yeah.
I have to tell you, Clinton, it’s interesting, having been traveling now for almost three years, aside from family, we’re already almost dreading coming back and saying, “Okay, how quickly can we get back on the road?” and we haven’t even come back yet. It’s because there’s so much opportunity and amazing places to go. So family’s important, but we talk every week with my family, my wife’s family, and the kids’ grandparents. We’re in such a different world virtual-wise. That makes it much easier. You don’t get the personal hugs and personal touch but it’s made it much easier being able to connect.
Just one other point In regard to family, one of the reasons we did this is when we were in Southern California, we had a huge 4,200 square foot home, but half the time I didn’t know where my kids were in the house. Everybody had their own room. They had a different part of the house they were hanging out in. What I love about what we’re doing right now. Glenn is we’re, we’re in much smaller spaces where we are always somewhat congregated together. And we are getting so much more quality time together. It’s such a better experience. I don’t want to say it was a bad experience before, but when we’re talking about family, we’re getting a much better connection – we’re interacting every day. We’re seeing each other every day. I think every day in the last thousand days we’ve had breakfast and dinner together as a family.
So it’s been great from that perspective as a family, but it will be a challenge when we come back.
Clinton Young: Do you have nothing in sight, as of right now, in regards to coming back? Besides when you come back to visit family once in a while. You guys are loving it so much that you don’t really see an end to this currently. Is that what I’m hearing you say?
Roy Meyer: You know, honestly once you get on the road, if traveling is something that interests you, it really gets into your blood. Everybody has a different lifestyle that they want to pursue. If it’s not travel, do whatever your ideal lifestyle is. We’ve always traveled a little bit, you know, and loved it. It is so freeing and you just want to do more and honestly I don’t know that we are going to stop doing this ever. I don’t know. I don’t know if we will ever settle again. I cannot even imagine having a 30 year mortgage again. It would almost be like a ball and chain to my ankle. For us, having really jumped off the cliff, having sold everything we own, we have one suitcase each, that’s all we have. It is so freeing and so addicting and to go from the extreme of having the big fancy house with the pool and the cars and blah blah blah, down to bare necessities, you really get to appreciate life. You really get to free up your mind. You really get to free up your experiences.
Clinton Young: Let’s dig into that a little bit more, Roy, around freedom. For the people who follow me and follow this show, it’s all about freedom lifestyle and how we make money on the move. Not that it’s all about making money, but if we want to travel around the world, we kind of have to have a little bit of money sometimes. So, freedom lifestyle – you said the word free and freedom several times in the last 30 seconds. I would love you to dig a little bit more into that experience of freedom. When did you notice that, did you notice it right away? How did you notice it? What’s the most poignant experience of freedom for you with this experience?
Roy Meyer: Freedom can look a lot different to a lot of different people. For me, freedom is… I didn’t want my kids to grow up without me. So I have the freedom to work when I’m going to work. I have the freedom to experience what we want to experience. I have the freedom to grow up with my kids and be an influence in their lives. I have the freedom as a parent to be able to have every single meal with my family. Some families may not want that. Freedom is to be able to go anywhere we want to go really, we have this freedom lifestyle that is hard to let go of. And I can’t imagine moving forward, we would we ever will now. A lot of people think you have to have a ton of money to do this. Now, do you have to have money, absolutely. You have to do it.
It’s interesting because our expenses living in Southern California to when we left are about half or less of what we were spending in California. You can do this in an extremely budget friendly way. You go as low or as high as you want. We have met some incredible people on all ends of that spectrum. It’s amazing when you let go of the things we have in the US, we don’t have all of those expenses. We have different health insurance. We don’t have a car payment. We don’t have utility payment. We don‘t have a house payment. We don’t have the cable payment. We don’t have all of those things, it just frees you up even financially to take this on. So just know moving forward that it’s very inexpensive. A great way to start is in Southeast Asia, because you really get spoiled there – it’s very affordable as for what you can do and experience versus maybe going to Europe.
Roy Meyer: My business is mostly online already. To kind of share what’s possible, I’m a big outsourcing guy. I love working with virtual assistants, as you know. I teach in the Philippines. I teach in India. I would do a lot of that with my clients as well because it just provides you with a freedom lifestyle. So for me, I probably couldn’t live the lifestyle that we’re having with my different businesses without my virtual team.
Clinton Young: 100%
Roy Meyer: That has allowed me to create this lifestyle.
To give you an idea what my virtual team looks like. I have a My office manager in the States for my real estate business in Southern California. She’s running my California real estate business. She’s a virtual assistant running that there for the most part. I have a tech team in India that I’ve had for 18 years now.
A side-story Clinton that’s funny – I’ve had them for like 18 years, but I’d never met him. We went to India and met for the very first time. These are people who worked for me for 18 years and I never met him personally. It was really another fun story.
I actually have a team in the Philippines that does some various things for our business as well. I have a project manager in Slovenia. They kind of manage our projects and keep things moving forward. I have a bookkeeper in India, who is phenomenal, as good as any bookkeeper in the states, at a fraction of the price. So I have a virtual team that I have built around me. That has made it affordable for us to do what we’re doing. And so when we talk about living in the world that we’re in right now, we’re in a global space and many times people don’t realize there’s so much more opportunity. We get so focused on the US. We love our country, you know, the US. Without question, but also, we’re in a global world and the more people you meet, they’re all just trying to do the same thing as us. They’re trying to have a great life and provide for their family. I’d like to see more of the international borders broken down and for us to work together more as a world instead of just as a country. There are some amazing people and opportunities out there. So, money-wise I still run my businesses now. Clinton, they are doing better than they ever have, without me being present. My coaching programs are growing, because people want to do or experience some of the things that we’re doing. My real estate business is doing just fine without me there. Sometimes we have this mindset that people can’t do things as well as us or that we have to do it all. And the more you can let go of those things in your business that don’t require you or are not your highest income generating activities. The more you’re going to prosper. So I think that’s probably a round-about answer to your question.
Clinton Young: There are some great goodies there. For those of you listening on the podcast and not seeing the video, you’re hearing some amazing birds in the background because Roy is on this epic beach in Lombok, you said right? Indonesia. Correct?
Roy Meyer: And in Asia.
Clinton Young: And you just came from the Gili islands, or is this one of the Gili islands.
Roy Meyer: This is a different one. We were just in the Gili islands and so now we’re over here in Lombok. Which is spectacular.
Clinton Young: So that’s why you’re hearing the birds in the background. This is a true traveler all around the world.
I’ve got a couple quick hitter questions for you. And then anything else you want to talk about before I ask you to share how we can support you and any other topics that maybe we missed that you want to make sure to let the listeners know.
I want to talk a little bit about a couple of really quick questions. Health insurance – do you have any recommendations? Obviously, you’re not an insurance guy, so I’m not talking professional advice here. What have you found to really work for health insurance? That’s one quick question.
Roy Meyer: The first thing, if you’re going to get ready to travel, you absolutely have to have travel insurance. It’s a backup to what your regular insurance might be, which I’ll talk about, but you absolutely have to get travel insurance. That’s part of the insurance that you have. We’re actually going to switch companies, I’ll share that down the road.
For us, the insurance we had in the US would not cover us. Obamacare does not cover you if you’re traveling. If you’re out of the country that it’s not going to cover you. What we had switched to is actually a Christian plan, but it’s not a religious plan. So speaking it’s a health share. We switched over to a company called liberty. I wish we had done this sooner, Clinton. We now have far better insurance than we had before, and we are paying about 20% of what our premium was in the states and that covers us international. So as a family, we have the top plan and it just got increased, so now we’re paying like $550 a month for that top plan and it allows us to choose our own doctors. There’s no restrictions, and it’s something I wish I had done sooner. So, make sure you have health insurance and make sure you have travel insurance. Then, also check out some of the different health share insurance programs that are out there. That’s what we have, and it’s actually worked. We’ve had to use it before and it’s been proven for us.
Clinton Young: Got it. Excellent. That’s excellent information, and then just ballpark costs. What would you say, and I know everybody’s different, but what would be like the bare minimum monthly expenses. Maybe just an average if you also go to some countries that are a little more expensive and then you go to some countries in Southeast Asia that are very, very inexpensive. Is there kind of a ballpark bare minimum that somebody could even just wrap their head around to see if this is even possible for them.
Roy Meyer: You know, a bare minimum independent if you’re single. Obviously it would be more for your family, but you can absolutely travel on $50 a day. That includes your lodging, your meals, factoring in your travels, factoring in different excursions that you might want to do. So if you’re single, you can absolutely do it on $50 a day without question. One thing you want to learn that we’re still learning as we go, is to be able to play the points game with the airlines and hotels. That’s something you want to do right from the get go. Getting a good credit card that is going to be able to accumulate points for you or get you miles. That’s something you want to study up on before you leave because that is so important and that can pay huge dividends for you, down the road. Just to give you a perspective on that, when we were in Spain, we spent a month in Spain and we didn’t pay for a penny of the hotel. It was all covered on points. Right now, we’ve accumulated enough points through different motels that we could probably do close to eight months of free travel with airlines. So, that’s a game you definitely want to learn now as a family. Depending on what part of the world you’re going to go to, our budget that we try to stay under is $200 a day. Now that’s a little bit on the upper end, but that includes all of our expenses. That includes airfare, our meals for four people, our lodging, if we go out and do excursions, and all of the other expenses we have. So, we’ve been able to do that. Many times it’s less. So that’s kind of a range. We know other families that are in the 250 $300 range, but we have no qualms with what we’re doing in regards to our budget. So answer your question, for instance, we’re in the Gili islands – a beautiful area – and we were looking at some lodging places that were $10 a night.
Clinton Young: Wow.
Roy Meyer: You know, it’s clean, they have WiFi, and it’s near the beach. There are some amazing deals out there. Typically, if you don’t have great Wi-Fi, you can always go to a co-working space. Which is one of the things I love.
I like when we go somewhere and find some of the most popular co-working places that people are going to. The reason I do that is I love going to meet other people, and I love going to meet other nomads. For instance, when we were in Portaventura, I met a couple brilliant marketers from Italy. That has some marketing agencies and we’re still in contact today. We share information and go back and forth. The people that you can meet will not only open your mind to other experiences with what they’re doing, but many times they know what’s going on around you know. They know the great deals, where the great places to go are, where the great places to eat are, where the great places to stay are. So those are a couple of tips. You can do it very inexpensively.
Clinton Young: That’s great advice Royce, I’m hearing about $50 a day, plus or minus.
I’m curious when you say “play the points game.” I know that you have the opportunity to either fly the same airline or stay at the same hotel. Which probably is a little more challenging to do around the world airline-wise, because you’re going to be flying a lot of maybe lesser known airlines, perhaps in different countries. Do you do it that way, where you choose an airline, choose a hotel and stay obviously with Marriott? It looks like you probably did that, or do you get a credit card that you can just accumulate points, no matter where you stay. What’s the preferred method there for both airlines and hotels?
Roy Meyer: Yeah, I don’t know if there’s a one size fits all. Typically, you’re going to want to research the credit cards that are not only going to give you points like us at a Marriott. We have a Chase Card that also quadruples our Marriott points we already get. You want to find out what has the best benefits. What’s going to get you the most points. What is not going to have international fees when you hit the ATM. It may not even be something that’s tied to a hotel, it might just be something that gives you a lot of points every time you spend. It’s something that’s really important, and I wish we would have researched that a lot more before we left. We started doing that on the fly, and we left a lot of money and opportunity on the table by not really understanding that game before we took the leap.
Clinton Young: So it sounds like that’s a great hack right there, and just a great tip for the audience. It sounds like the credit card points are more important than choosing the same airline every single time. Obviously if you can do that, you’re gonna help yourself in both ways, but It sounds like you have a little more flexibility with the credit cards that are really, really good that give you the points. That’s kind of what I’m hearing or that I miss-hear that?
Roy Meyer: With us, the same airlines aren’t always available. Many times even in Southeast Asia where, say, you’re flying China Air somewhere and your flights are $10. Also, what group are those airlines part of? Those points sometimes tie in as part of the group that the airlines might be part of. You can buy points, you know, if you need to sometimes with airlines, we have actually found It’s, it’s fairly expensive on the site to buy your ticket, and then we look and we can go in and actually buy these points for that airline and it’s like 30% cheaper to go by these points and then apply the points for the tickets. So, it’s really important once again that you understand that game because it makes it more affordable for you as you travel. When you can leverage the points.
Clinton Young: Got it. Well as we wrap up here in the next couple of minutes. Tell us what it’s like to travel in the time of COVID, and is it possible for somebody who wanted to start traveling in the time of COVID? Now, you found out about COVID while you were in Bali and chose to stay, and you kept on your journey. What is it been like, I know you said it’s been a very unique travel experience, and is it possible for someone to start traveling right now, in your opinion.
Roy Meyer: We actually came to Bali for a marketing conference for a mastermind In February, not knowing we were going to be here for a year at that time. We did choose to stay. We could have come back, but we chose this to stay here. One of the things, Clinton with the COVID is there’s so much fear being driven out there. I think it’s real. I think it’s serious. I think we need to take it seriously, but at the same time, the fear has been overwhelming with what’s being Projected. In regards to traveling for us right now, the way we look at this as with any bad situation – it’s really how you look at that situation. We can either tremble about it and worry about it, or we make this the best situation possible for us right now. I think, in the terms of COVID, we’re probably in a two to three year bubble before travel gets somewhat back to what it was.
Roy Meyer: So the way we’re looking at this is this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. To see the world like you have never seen it before, to be able to experience places like you’ve never seen them before. To give you an example, we were just in the Gili islands, and normally they’ll have 10s of thousands of people on these islands and it’s party central there. We went there and there were maybe 50. We got to see the beauty of this island without all of the outside noise. The sea turtles that had come back that we got to experience were amazing. We’re here now in Lombok which is a beautiful island. But once again, this is an opportunity you don’t normally have. In Bali, many times, you’re waiting for four hours to take a two second Instagram photo. So If you have the opportunity, that’s how we look at it right now. Let’s take advantage of this. When will we ever get the opportunity to see the world without all the packed tourists, without all the packed airports, without all the incredible fees, like this place where we’re staying now. We wouldn’t stay here, you know, at the price they would normally charge. We’re paying pennies on the dollar compared to what they would normally charge. It’s an opportunity for us to really experience that. So, that’s how we look at this opportunity. Now can you travel, absolutely. As I understand it, right now, there’s only a few countries that are accepting people from the US.
Clinton Young: Right.
Roy Meyer: So you have to kind of look at where you can go. What’s going to open up. Now our fear right now of leaving Indonesia is, we leave, and we can’t come back. So even if we come back to the US right now, our fear would be where can we go if we do come to the US.
Roy Meyer: But look at what’s open. I think places like Greece, the Bahamas, and Mexico. There are a host of other countries that are starting to open up, and I’m pretty sure as they develop the rapid testing, I think we’re going to see some pretty quick advancements on testing over the next few months. It’s going to make it a lot easier to travel for people.
I would say just in closing on that, you have an amazing opportunity to see the world like you will never get the opportunity to see it again. So if you have that chance and can do it, I would absolutely do it. One thing I forgot to mention, is that it’s really important when you’re traveling that we didn’t touch on – the internet, and we didn’t really talk about that. So wherever you’re going, we actually make them send us screenshots of their internet speed. If we’re thinking about two places where we’re going to stay, I want to know, okay, I need to see a screenshot of that upload and download speed, because that’s critical for my work, it’s critical for our kids homeschool, and so you don’t want to go somewhere, only to find out that you can’t work if the internet doesn’t work.
Clinton Young: I’m taking notes over here as we wrap up. You’ve given so many amazing tips and hacks. I was going to ask you, what are your top tips, but you’ve kind of given a lot of them already, and I know we need to wrap up here. Is there anything else as we close that you want to share. I also want to find out if there’s anything else that you haven’t said yet, that you feel is a massive tip or words of wisdom for anyone. Then we’ll talk a little bit about how listeners can stay in connection with you. What are your parting words for people who are seeking that freedom lifestyle?
Roy Meyer: Just to revamp a little bit on what we spoke about before, you know, when we took off through this journey, we really didn’t know what to expect. We had the faith, had the belief that we’d make it work. I knew I was gonna have to push myself beyond my existing limits at the time, but what I was just sharing, it’s so hard to put into words. The space that we’re in right now spiritually, mentally, and physically. It just becomes an addicting type of lifestyle. Especially when you start meeting other like minded people along the way.
Looking back where I was at three years ago, I am a completely different person than I was. Whether it’s the relationships we’ve built, the stronger bond with our family, or the freeing lifestyle. I think part of it is also just getting all of the “stuff” out of your mind allows you to really clear your mind from all the stuff that we often think is so important.
Being on the other side of the hill now, and looking back, I can’t imagine not having taken this journey. I can’t imagine what, looking back, what our life now will have been because of it, versus what it would have been if we hadn’t done it. If it’s something you’re thinking about, I just can’t encourage it enough. It’s hard to even put into words the fulfillment and the experience.
Clinton Young: Wonderful. I love it. Helen Keller says, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.” And I love that you took that daring adventure. You will be regretting later on in life that I didn’t do it, I didn’t go for it. It’s such a perfect time right now, granted, there are some restrictions, right, that’s why my wife and I were going to start in the US, and do an RV tour around the US. Until it gets a little easier, and hopefully things open up just a little bit. Although I am excited to continue to travel in the time of COVID next year and going into 2022. When there is barely anybody out traveling, and I remember seeing one of your videos being in a game Park. I believe it was in Dubai and I think you were the only one there. It was kind of creepy, I’m not going to lie, but also kind of a unique and very special experience.
Roy Meyer: was weird. It was definitely weird, and just on that you bring up a great point. When we think about travel, we think internationally, but it doesn’t have to be international. Even after coming back to the US, we thought if we ever had come back to the US, we probably do the same thing in the US. There’s a lot of places in the US we haven’t seen. Travel could look different for us.
Clinton Young: I want to close by saying, Roy, first of all, it’s wonderful to have you on today. I want to know a little bit more about how we can support you and your brand, and whatever your mission and causes are. I know your family, you call it the “winging it family.” I love it, and I follow you guys all over the place. Tell us how we can follow you, how we can get in touch with you. What can we do to support you on your mission?
Roy Meyer: In closing on that, one of the things that we love to do, and one of my passions is being able to help others to live their ideal life. When I’m working with my clients, we don’t get into business right at the beginning. I want to know what kind of lifestyle we are building towards. From there, we’re going to be making decisions and a framework to achieve that life or build your business in a way that’s going to support your lifestyle versus building a business that you have to cram a lifestyle around.
So we’d love to share information. I’d love to have you follow me even on social media. Roy Meyer TV on Instagram. You can search me. Same thing on Facebook and LinkedIn. I share a lot of great information there. If you ever have any questions just reach out to me through social media. I’m happy to help.
I think in closing, Clinton, one of the most fulfilling things that we’re doing is that it’s allowed us to give back a lot. When we travel, we do a lot of outreach, and we get very active with the communities and get our kids active in the communities so we are able to teach them what’s important moving forward. That’s really important as well. I think that’s probably one of the most fulfilling things that we do. We’re able to give back even more now with what we’re doing. That’s really what life is all about as well. So as far as following or anything they do to help me, I appreciate that. If you’d like to follow along in our journey, if you’d like to get some great business tips, marketing tips, travel tips, or school tips then go on our social media – I share a lot of great information there.
Clinton Young: Excellent. So you heard it here, Roy Meyer TV. Follow him on social media. Connect with him. Who knows, there might be an opportunity to work with him in some capacity. I know a lot of people listening who have businesses and want your kind of lifestyle.
I think you said something beautiful there. I want to have you say it one more time. I am so glad you said it because I forgot to bring it up, and I believe it’s one of the things you kind of stand for. It was creating a business that fits your lifestyle versus creating a lifestyle that fits your business. I believe that’s what you said. Beautiful.
Roy Meyer: Absolutely, and most people get that backwards as they’re building their business. They don’t think about what they’re trying to build towards, and the next thing you know you’re an employee of your own business.
Clinton Young: Yes, and we don’t we don’t want that. So awesome, it was such a pleasure, Roy. Congratulations again on creating this amazing life for you and your family. I totally acknowledge you and I admire you. I want to be you when I grow up. Oh my goodness. I know you’re not that much older than me, but I want to do exactly what you’re doing. And I’m going to be doing it. I know a lot of people listening are going to follow some of the tips to create that freedom lifestyle for themselves. So thanks again, and have a wonderful rest of your week.
Roy Meyer: Thank you, Clinton. Thanks for having me. Thanks for everything you’re doing for everybody, as well. I love your show and appreciate all you’re doing. Appreciate you and your family as well.
Clinton Young: Excellent. Take care.