>>DANIELLE: Hey everyone, in this video we're meeting up with Jacqueline.
She's been a digital nomad and full time traveler for over three years.
And she's going to tell us about the pros and cons of living and working out of a suitcase.
She also has a pretty minimalist luggage setup.
So she's gonna show us what bags she uses
and she's going to share one of her top packing tips.
We met her at Outsite in Lisbon
which is the co-working and co-living space where we're staying this week.
It's specifically for people who work while they travel
and we love it because we know we'll get fast Wi-Fi,
we'll meet other digital nomads,
and we'll have a comfortable place to work.
We spent three sunny days exploring Lisbon with
Jacqueline and asking her all about her lifestyle
and we're excited to share her insights with you.
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>>JACQUELINE: I started travelling in June 2015,
so it's been three and a half years now.
When I decided to travel, I had an apartment in Las Vegas
and it was full of things.
Some things I had never even used before or
had only had for six months and were barely touched.
And I got rid of everything,
sold it all, and decided to travel. And what I have now
at one of my family member's homes
is a plastic bin so I'll keep some things for when I go back to switch things out,
but mostly everything I carry with me.
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I work for remote companies and right now I'm COO of
a small company;
and we have team members all around the world working on special projects.
All of our work is online.
It's surprising how many remote opportunities are out there.
And how many companies are willing to work with employees
who want to be remote in order to let them live wherever they're happiest.
I'm not spending any more than I did each month on rent or on my mortgage for my condo
than I am now.
It's just that Airbnb is my landlord or different community spaces I stay in are my landlords,
so I think it's attainable for people to
look for remote work and not have to sacrifice
making a living wage and even being able to save some extra money on the side.
[Music Playing]
Usually I'll spend time bouncing between
community focussed spaces, places like Outsite and
Airbnbs but most of my travel has been in Airbnbs.
The time I spend in each location varies.
So I've stayed in some places as little as a few days because I'm speaking at a conference; and some places,
I've stayed in as long as three months.
When I first started traveling, it was a race to go country by country
and rack up as many as I could but now it's
a bit calmer so I travel at a slower pace.
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I travel with three bags: one is Patagonia's Headway bag
which is a size 45 litre, I travel with a large size Rickshaw
backpack, and then I have a Cambridge Satchel
purse; and those are the three bags I travel with.
I like to travel with things that elicit
a memory or an emotional response
so l will pick things up along the way in different countries that I'm in. Another thing that
I cannot imagine traveling without and I recommend to everyone
are compression packing cubes.
Using the compression cubes,
it is shocking how much I can fit into my small 45 litre bag.
And I've also grown to
downsize and understand exactly what I need to travel.
So if you would have told me five years ago that I would be travelling with the luggage I carry now,
I would have said you were crazy.
But I sold everything and got rid of all the junk I had in my life
and really just stick to the essentials now.
Everything that I have in the bag has a special meaning and has a special purpose.
Another thing I travel with that sometimes I feel a little silly about is all of my vitamins.
So I take about five to six vitamins every day and
a lot of those vitamins, I will get when I'm back in the US
and then I will pack them in my bag and they travel with me.
When I get to a new location, I love exploring nature.
I love seeing what museums are there. I love trying new dishes.
Most of all, I like getting outside of my comfort zone. So anything I can do to shake up
what I know to be true is what I seek out in new locations.
Most times when I'm visiting a location, I'm working
and I need to live a daily life
and so that includes having good infrastructure and having great Wi-Fi
but sometimes I will kind of go off the beaten path if I'm taking time off work
and then Wi-Fi doesn't matter as much.
[Indistinct Voices]
I had an expectation of travel when I first started
and I think it's one that we all share that we glorify travel.
I was surprised to find that travel wasn't a shortcut to happiness
and I could find curiosity, passion and awe,
anywhere that I was and it didn't need to depend on the travel or the location.
Travel is difficult!
It's hard. There sometimes where a Monday is a Monday no matter where you are.
So I decided to write a book about
why we travel and why we glorify travel
and how that has changed over the course of time when we're
scrolling through our Instagram feeds
and seeing beach photos.
Is that really travel? Is that what travel looks like on a daily basis?
and for me,
it is not how it looks on a daily basis. I love traveling.
I will probably continue to travel and I'm grateful to travel
but I also know that travel isn't the answer.
A challenge to traveling full-time
is the language from time to time.
I'm learning Spanish and Portuguese
and it can be frustrating when I'm not saying things correctly or I can't think of the right word.
Another challenge is it can be hard to not become attached to routines and even to people.
Part of how I've grown while traveling is I've learned to be more present
and aware of where I am in the moment versus grasping at things and wanting them to be around forever.
[Music Playing]
My lifestyle with long-term travel is a fit for me
and it's always evolving.
It's never one exact lifestyle day in and day out.
There's all kinds of things I'm trying
and experimenting with and I think long-term
travel will be a fit until it isn't and then I'll do something different with my life.
[Music Playing]
>>DANIELLE: We hope you enjoyed meeting Jacqueline as much as we enjoyed touring Lisbon with her.
If you want to find out more about her book,
Travel Isn't the Answer,
or about Outsite, the co-living space where we met her,
we'll link to both of those in the description of this video.
Thanks for watching and please subscribe if you want to see more alternative living videos.
We post a new video every single week.
See you next time.